Safe surfing on the Internet
The Internet and the World Wide Web are wonderful information resources for both parents and children. Children can learn a lot by doing research for school reports, by sending and receiving email, and by playing educational games. But since the Web is an environment where children old enough to punch in a few letters on their keyboards can literally access the world, parents need to be vigilant about monitoring what their children see and hear, who they meet, and what information they share. That free, uncensored connection to the world can potentially be dangerous.
How to minimize your child's risk
A Vast Network of Information
The World Wide Web, one portion of the Internet, is a vast network of virtual libraries. Not everything in those libraries, however, is something you'd like to see - or have your child see. For example, your 8-year-old might go to a search engine and type in the word "Lego." But with just one missed keystroke, she might enter the word "Legs" instead and be directed to thousands of websites with a focus on legs - some of which may contain pornographic material.
The Child Online Protection Act (COPA), passed in October 1998, made it a federal crime to use the Internet to communicate material considered harmful to minors, and charged commercial providers of sexually explicit materials for adults (such as pornographic websites) with restricting the access of minors. But it has been challenged on the grounds that it restricts freedom of speech, and an injunction (a court order prohibiting the law from being enforced) has been ordered.
And although privacy laws addressing the online collection and distribution of children's personal information and the need for parental consent have been enacted, the Internet is largely unregulated. For example, at this time, in most states, it is not against the law for pornographic websites to send out explicit email advertisements (though it may be illegal in some states if the sender knows the email address belongs to a minor).
This means your child's best online protection is you. By talking to your child often about potential online dangers and monitoring computer use, you'll be giving her the tools she needs to learn to surf safely.
Minimizing Your Child's Risk
There are ways to regulate or control your child's access to adult material and minimize her risk of attracting online predators when she is surfing the Internet. Experts agree that the most important thing parents and caregivers can do to protect children from Internet danger is to monitor computer activity and educate them about the risks of cyberspace.
Service Provider Blocking Options: Nearly all online service providers (OSPs) and Internet service providers (ISPs) offer parental controls or blocking options. The member services section of your ISP or OSP can help you customize online controls and filters for each of your children.
Blocking Software: Blocking software prohibits or blocks access to designated sites based on a "bad site" list composed by the computer owner and the ISP or OSP. The list updates vary by manufacturer. Remember that the number of websites published daily far exceeds the ability of any software company to keep a "bad site" list current; some sites with adult content will invariably get through the blocking software.
Filtering Software: Filtering software uses certain keywords to block sites containing those words alone or in context with other words. One of the criticisms of filtering is that it blocks sites that are not necessarily offensive. For example, "sex" as a filtered term may result in blocking a website about "sextuplets." Some filters permit parents to select their own categories and related keywords for filtering.
Outgoing Filtering: Outgoing filtering restricts personal information - name, address, phone number - from being sent online. Internet safety advocates feel that broadcasting personal information to strangers is far more dangerous than logging on to a pornographic web page.
Monitoring and Tracking Software: Most school technology systems now include monitoring and tracking software, as well as blocks, to track where students go online. Information such as length of time on the Internet, time of day, sites visited, and time spent offline but on the computer is logged by these programs. Similar monitoring and tracking software is available for home computer systems.
A great way to protect your children is to show them how to use the Internet safely. The Internet provides wonderful information and it can help your children expand their horizons in ways that previous generations never knew. By taking an active role in your children's Internet activities, you'll be ensuring that they can benefit from the wealth of child-friendly information the Internet has to offer.