Tools to Keep The Web Safe for Children
In today's New York Times, Alina Tugend wrote an excellent opinion piece:
RECENTLY, a friend’s 9-year-old son stumbled onto some all-too-vivid pornography while playing games on a children’s Web site.
At first he was scared to let his mom know. But unable to hold it in any longer he blurted out that the images were “haunting” him.
“I can’t get these pictures out of my head,” he told her. “I think about them all the time.”
My friend was stunned, especially since she thought she had some fairly strong controls on her computer to prevent such a thing from happening. “I felt like a terrible mother,” she said.
Listening to her, I felt like a fairly ignorant one. I had heard of Internet parental controls and filters, but had never checked them out. Telling our sons that they could visit only certain Web sites — and as our computer is in a common room, keeping an eye on what they are doing — seemed adequate to me."
Alina describes the pros and cons of web monitoring systems, filters and, yes, even spying. Want to read more of Alina's essay? Go to http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/14/technology/14shortcuts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
