Keeping Your Child Safe From Internet Predators

Way back in the dim
dark ages–that is, the 1980s–keeping track of whom your kids hung out with
seemed to be a daunting task. Whether at the mall, after school, or at friends’
houses, your child’s opportunities to socialize with unsavory characters were very numerous. Parents worried that their kids’ friends would lead them into trouble.

But in order to talk
to their friends, kids had to use the hard-wired rotary phone in the kitchen. A
few lucky kids may have had their own phone in their bedroom.

With the rise of the
Internet, the stakes are higher and the possibilities are scarier. Interactive
social sites including Facebook and the growing use of email provide
opportunities for predators to make contact with young people. Portable devices such as cell phones and Blackberries take adolescent
communication out of the home computer, where parents had a chance to oversee
their kids’ activities, and puts it virtually anywhere.

The problem is
significant. According to
“Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation’s Youth,” produced in
cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention and University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against
Children Research Center, every year approximately one in five kids receives a
sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet. One in thirty-three receive
a significant sexual solicitation from a predator who asks to meet them
somewhere, calls them on the phone, or sends them a message by snail mail. One in
four has an unwanted exposure to pornography.

Unfortunately, kids
don’t always tell their parents. Less than ten percent of sexual solicitations
and only three percent of unwanted exposure episodes are reported to police, a
hotline, or an Internet service provider. Only about one quarter of the kids who
encounter a sexual solicitation or approach tell a parent.

Education is key. Where do kids and parents go for assistance?
There are agencies that can help, but consumer awareness is low. According to
the report, only 17% of youth and approximately 10% of parents could name a
specific authority (such as the FBI, CyberTipline, or an Internet service
provider) to which they could make a report.

Parents can take
action. There are positive steps
that parents can take short of throwing the computer in the trash. As of the
year 1999–the date of the report–in households with home Internet access, one
third of parents interviewed said they had filtering or blocking software on
their computer.

Today, available Internet
blocking software has become powerful and effective. Some brands include:

Net Nanny Parental
Controls

Safe Eyes

CYBERsitter

CyberPatrol

MaxProtect

FilterPak

Netmop

WiseChoice.net

McAfee Parental
Controls

Norton Parental
Controls

Child Safe

Each software package
offers different features and capabilities. For example, CYBERsitter and
Maxprotect offer predator blocking; none of the others do. But CYBERsitter and
Maxprotect may not be available for Macs.

No blocking software
is 100% successful in filtering all objectionable sites or blocking predators.
Plenty of objectionable content is available on the Internet, just as it is in
many areas of a free society. With diligence and help from technology, parents can limit their kids’
exposure to Internet threats. But the best weapon of all is family communication. Parents
who talk to their kids on a regular basis are definitely ahead in the game.