What do you want for YOUR children.
Let us look at the amazing technology that’s been introduced in the last decade. That which has grown and its usage increased so much that the effects on our culture are vast!
British Telecom predicted that people would start working from home with the aid of fax machines, laptops, access to the internet, email and so on. Nobody knew that the number of people changing the existing working culture would be so great. Alright so all of this incredible technology saves us time, money, time travelling and effort but at what COST?
Lets take the Internet. There are so many pluses. Having encyclopaedias on screen, being able to send messages at the cost of a local call or for a monthly one off fee, being able to do searches on various subjects for school (and work) projects. Fabulous!
So what do we have to lose? A child can type in the word sex and call up all sorts of porn. He or she may MEAN gender but will get porn never the less. He or she may have to do a project on Amsterdam for Geography but if he or she types that in they could get something they didn’t bargain for. Do we want our children being exposed to this sort of thing? I for one know that I don’t want this for my future children. But what can we do to ensure we get what we want. (Assuming that you agree with me).
Do we not want to have the use of the Internet in a way that’s suitable for children WITHOUT the parents having to stand over them and ensure they don’t get a surprise.
Can we not campaign and as a result, gain some control of what goes out on the Internet, be empowered to have things removed from the net if need be?
There has been on and off publicity about the Internet and porn for quite a few years now! Has there been any progress in terms of capping this activity? What do you think? Is it better?
There are also ways of seeing abuse LIVE over the Internet and the so called snuff movies which are supposed to end in the ‘viewer’ seeing a child die. This has been of great concern because the children’s identities are more often than not unknown and bodies haven’t been found, thus the perpetrators of this violence are not being caught. There is the added confusion re whether they’re ‘faked deaths’ or not. What can the Police do?
Why are service providers not stopping this kind of material from go out? It has been argued that it is because a lot of their customers who are interested in porn are the big spenders. They don’t want them to move on to another Internet Server so they keep allowing it.
Are these providers sacrificing the innocence of our children and the children of our future?
Something parents may need to know? I’m sure these terms are out of date now but do you know them?
ASL ~ Age, sex & location
POS ~ parent over shoulder
Did you know that webcams can mean that you or your child are exposed to nude pictures that can be sent via chat rooms & email?
I am NOT advocating banning the internet. However, as adults we need to make sure that we protect children by using safe providers, installing filters & most of all giving children the skill to know what is right and wrong, safe and dangerous and empower them to make decisions that are good for them. What do you think?
