Children and Internet Safety
Jodie Lawton, Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis, University of Missouri-St. Louis
In a recent report it was estimated that about 17 million children and teens between 12-17 years of age were on the Internet. (See http://www.pewinternet.org/) for more information about teens online.) This represents about 75% of all the young people in the United States. With so many young people online it is important to think about some of the safety issues. Here are some frequently asked questions.
Where are the areas of the Internet that children or teenagers might come across harmful or inappropriate information?
Harmful and inappropriate material can come from just about everywhere on the Internet-- in an e-mail or instant message, through accidentally finding a pornographic website, in chatrooms, bulletin boards, or news groups.
What are some of the dangers for children on the Internet?
First, children may be exposed to inappropriate content including pornography, violence, and language. This may come in the form of pictures or text. Another source of trouble is harassment. Other young people or adults may send offending material, lots of junk mail or just be a nuisance.
There are some more serious problems that can occur. Children may be solicited online in regards to sex. This may occur in seemingly safe situations. For example, your son or daughter might enjoy playing chess online at one of many gaming web sites. In most of these games it is possible to type conversation while playing the game. This conversation may begin innocently and then proceed over a day or weeks into sexual topics.
Even more troubling are attempts of cyber stalking or stalking. This is when other children, teens, adults follow young people online or seek them out at their homes, schools, and so forth.
How effective is filtering or monitoring software at preventing children from seeing offensive material on the Internet?
No filtering software is going to be completely reliable, but it has become quite sophisticated and most of the programs have many options so that parents can adjust the filtering to meet their own personal standards or adjust options for children at different ages. There are many different types of filtering software. They each work slightly different. Some software may be better for younger children and some software may be easier for people without much computer knowledge. Parents should review available software and decide what best fits their needs for their family's situation.
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