How Can We Help Our Children to Use the Internet in a Safer Way?

How Can We Help Our Children to Use the Internet in a Safer Way?

Main Issues • Benefits • Possible Dangers and Risks • Available Solutions to Protect Children • Control Tools • Safety Tips

1. BENEFITS OF THE INTERNET You can share wide range of information and opinions. You can communicate with people from different cultures. You have no limits of time or location.

New Opportunities • Education: take an on-line course, get some help to do your homework... • Leisure: play games, enjoy hobbies... • Culture: visit museums, learn about other cultures • Economy: do the shopping at a supermarket, order books,records and travel tickets, participate in on-line auctions... • Social life: make new friends, socialize with people having same interests

2. POSSIBLE DANGERS AND RISKS • Content • Contact • E-Commerce • Legal risks

a) Content Risks • Illicit material (child pornography, racism, fraud, illegal drugs, support of terrorism...) • Harmful material (pornography for adults, violence, adult language, promoting the use of arms, extremist groups, cults...) • Other content-related risks (misleading or false information, source or privacy policy not available, intentional flaming)

b) Contact Risks • Internet allows contacts with strangers. • In the on-line world you can find the same as in the off-line world (reliable and unreliable people). • Someone can surf anonymously (so we cannot find out his/her real name, sex, age, job...). • Therefore the Internet is an ideal place for pedophiles and other predators. • There are several contact areas: chats, newsgroups, instant messaging, e-mail, web pages...

So it is risky... • to give out personal information; • to establish on-line relationships; • to acceed to suggestion tomeet someone face-to-face; or • to get into arguments (e.g. flaming); • because you may become a victim of • Offending; • Provoking; • Stalking; • Threatening; • Harassing; or • Sexual abusing.

c) Risks of E-Commerce • Minors are easily influenced. • Children like buying on the Internet. • Maladies and risks when doing shopping on-line: • Subliminal advertising appealing especially children, • Commercial pressures to buy easily (specious offers); • Misleading advertising and ambiguous terms; • Company’s privacy policy: companies may convey your personal information to third parties; • Loss of privacy when revealing personal details; • Possible limitations and difficulties to apply consumer protection policy to on-line purchases; and • Children buying without parent’s permission.

d) Legal Risks • Children may not just be potential victims... • Children can also be liable for illegal acts like: • being impolite and unpleasant, behaving offensively, committing flaming, spams, troll • harming other people deliberately, for example by revealing their personal details, impersonating • committing illegal activities (violation of intellectual property rights, threats, cracking)

3. WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS? • Raising Awareness by Educating Students • Control Tools • Walled Gardens • Content Rating • Hot-Lines for Reporting • Self-Regulation • Legislation • Age Control Systems

4. CONTROL TOOLS NB. Technical mechanisms like rating and filtering software, are not 100 % proof. When applying control tools, the parents must also consider the concept of the freedom of speech.

FILTERS • Most popularcontrol tools • Restrict the access to sites with illegal and harmful content • Filters can be enabled from different locations a) from user’s computer b) from local or remote proxy server or b) from Internet Service Provider’s server. *Not foolproof*

How does a filter work? Adaptation from Paul Resnick, University of Michigan

Other Control Tools • You can control and preset the time and length of the visit. • You can monitor, which web-sites children visit. • You can block access to certain sites and services (e.g. chat rooms). • You can block the edition or reception of certain information (personal information, publicity). • You can use special browsers for children.

5. SAFETY TIPS (I) • Familiarize yourself with the Internet. • Speak openly about the Internet use and possible dangers. • Surf together to find out the interests of your child.

Safety Tips (II) • Establish basic safety rules. • Contact the school to find out their safety policy and to get advice. • Find out about control tools. • Place the computer where everyonecan see it. • Search together for safe and useful web-sites.

Safety Tips (III) • When faced with a problem, react immediately, for example • talk with your child; • contactappropriate organizations eg your ISP; and • report child pornography to a hot-line.

Safety Tips (IV) • Teach your children how to use the Internet in a responsible manner: • How to distinguish between recommendable and harmful content? • How how to use the computer positively and avoid harming anyone? • How to solvepossible risks themselves?

Safety Tips (V) • Give Minors Safety Tips • Never reveal personal details. • Never fill in on-line registration forms without your permission. • Talk about and introduce new on-line friends. • Leave a chat room immediately when feelinguncomfortable. • Never meet someone met on-line without your permission or supervision. • Tell immediately about unpleasant experiences to you or to teachers. • Never open messages fromunknownpeople.

Acknowledgement: Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca, SUI Project, Internet Action Plan Núria Quintana (nuriaq@fcr.es)

How Can We Help Our Children to Use the Internet in a Safer Way?