Parents should always be concerned with the safety of their children on the internet. It is so easy to stumble upon something inappropriate or something that’s bad news. There a several internet programs that parents can use that prohibit children from using certain sites all together, like those that block certain television channels. Parents have been requesting even safer internet use for their children. Companies have been trying to develop the perfect program to monitor for some time and they are still not done. The program that has been the most successful so far is eGuardian. eGaurdian has parents enter a child’s information and then that information is confirmed with a school. I think this method makes more sense that just having people enter birthdates in, a child can chose a year that would make them appear older, just as a pedophile can make him appear younger. Some companies were proposing a site, like Myspace.com, where people under a certain age are only allowed to interact with people under that age or with adults that their parents approve. However, there is nothing in that which would prevent a child molester to lie about his age to make himself appear younger and then be able to interact with the child, situations like that happen every day. Parents are concerned with the new programs like eGaurdian because they are going to use the information provided about the child to target advertising to them. People are questioning whether these sites are actually promoting the safety of the children or hindering them with their advertising. I think that using the safety of children to promote products like junk food and toys is not in the best interest of the children or society. I believe the best way to ensure child internet safety is through parents. It is important to teach your child the risks and how to keep themselves safe, because in the long run they’re going to be the only ones who can do it.
Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/business/16ping.html?_r=1&ref=technology&oref=slogin
Source: http://www.eguardian.com/ourprocess.php
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