The Internet: for kids a web of intrigue
Children have insatiable curiosity, which is why they don’t have access to certain books in the library. But kids don’t use the library anymore because now they have the internet, a mixed blessing to be sure. Kids also love the whole idea of secrecy – secrets whispered to friends via messaging programs like AIM. And when one child discovers a shocking site, you can be sure that other kids will be alerted pronto. In our view, the internet is the greatest invention ever. It is also a windfall of gigantic proportions for an estimated one million pedophiles. Here in the ultimate knowledge playground, our kids run amuck, largely unsupervised and with disaster never more than a click away. According to national studies, 20% of our children have been connected with a sexual predator in one way or another via the internet.
There ought to be laws!
And there are. But many laws have been hotly debated as compromising our freedom of speech rights and overturned by the courts in whole or part. Still, in 2000, Congress enacted the Children’s Internet Protection Act requiring schools and libraries receiving federal technology funds to install pornography-blocking software on their computers. The library portion of this act has since been overturned but schools must now comply with the law. One small step for the good guys. Federal laws have also been enacted to protect children from people who lure or attempt to lure them into an offline meeting for the purpose of performing illegal sexual acts or coercing them to provide sexually explicit photos of themselves. In April 2003, Congress passed a law that provides wiretapping authority for seven sexual offenses, including child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children.
Parents must lay down the law too.
You can be sure that legislation will continue to tighten the protection afforded to children. You can also be sure that it will have little effect on the number of crimes perpetrated against children. Despite harsh penalties for kidnapping, the number of missing persons reported to law enforcement increased 468% from 1982 to 2000. Of the approximately 763, 000 juveniles reported missing in the year 2000, more than 152, 000 were categorized as either endangered or involuntarily abducted or both.
 Okay, parents, listen up.
There are multiple windows and doors in and out of the Internet, and all of them can pose a threat to your family. Email, chat rooms, instant messages (like AOL’s AIM), usenet newsgroups, peer-to-peer networks and search engines. Your child wants a computer to use in his or her room? Nuh-uh. Computers are only used in the family room under adult scrutiny. Your first line of defense is a set of house rules and a contract all family members sign. The Take Charge Program by Cox Communications offers an especially impressive contract agreement. See the Cox web address below.
Where to get more help.
Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet by Simon Johnson is must reading in our opinion (about $14 at Wal-Mart and bookstores). You can download a free chapter at www.keepyourkidssafe.com. In addition to making you smarter than the average pedophile, you’ll get recommendations on buying discounted software to block out dangerous sites, monitor where your kids are surfing and much more.
Software? You bet. There are now browsers and email programs just for kids. These block out objectionable sites, and you can set different levels for older children, approve additional sites yourself, and so on. Internet Explorer has a little known safe search feature that blocks sites based on the ICRA system whereby websites rate the content of their own sites. To date 150,000 sites have been rated with an additional 5,000 sites being added monthly. Unfortunately, some popular sites like Yahoo haven’t yet rated themselves, but this system seems to be the wave of the future. A free software filter is also available directly from ICRA (www.icra.org).
 Youth, Pornography and the Internet published by the National Research Council of the National Academies in Washington, D.C. is the “bible” on the subject of internet predation. It will set you back about $40 dollars, but you can download it free at http://bob.nap.edu/html/youth_internet.
Closer to home are the commendable efforts of Cox Communications’ Take Charge Program. National spokesman, John Walsh, experienced the horror of child loss first hand when his son Adam was abducted and killed. Take Charge is a great program that can make a real difference in your family’s internet safety.
For parents this list of web sites is MUST surfing:
www.nap.edu/netsafekids
www.kidssafeusa.com
www.keepyourkidssafe.com
http://bob.nap.edu/html/youth_internet
http://www.cox.com/takecharge/takecharge.asp
www.icra.org
From your concerned friends at Amerikidz, we wish you and your family safe surfing.
1 Statistics provided by the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
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