Online Dangers to Child Safety
What is there to say about the world children live in these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world that is dropping its standards, values, and morals each day, surrounds our children.
What is even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to keep our children away from websites of an adult nature. Children nowadays are advanced in technology, and sometimes more so than their parents. How can we protect our children against online dangers? How can we as parents provide safety for our children, while battling the corruption going on worldwide?
Parental Controls are available on most types of Internet software, yet today, children are skilled at by-passing these Parental Controls. So, what can we do? We can guard our children by monitoring their time spent on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you use, however, I will write only of the Internet providers I know about, since not all programs are the same. To use AOL Parental Controls, you will need to go to ‘Safety’ on the toolbar and click on ‘Parental Controls’.
Once you get there, you will see a list of usernames available. Look for your child’s username and click on the username. You will see a popup window appear. Click on ‘Edit Web Control’ and then click ‘Kids Only’, and close. Now your child is protected against dangerous sites.
Chat rooms pose serious dangers to children, since anyone can go into these rooms. Often predators frequent these areas, so as to entice children into a web of danger. In the AOL program, click on ‘Safety’ and then click on ‘Parental Controls’.
In the same way, click on the ‘Edit IM Controls’, ‘Edit E-mail Controls’, and ‘Edit Chat Control’ and complete the same steps as you did to establish the ‘Parental Controls’.
It is wise to install passwords. Passwords will offer additional protection and safety for your child. Do not give your child the passwords, because this will give the child control over the Internet connection, and the child might also reset the controls.
It is also a good idea to activate your ‘Popup Controllers’ too, since if you do not turn on the controls, pop ups could carry a virus that could corrupt your computer or popup adult content, which your child will see when online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to start these popup blockers.
If you are using Internet Explorer, open a page. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top menu, click ‘Popup Blocker’ and then click ‘Popup Blocker Settings’. Read the information carefully and set the program at medium. Medium is standard and will block most pop ups. If you put the settings higher than medium you might find it difficult to open websites for browsing.
Some of the dangers presented to children online include: Internet Porn; Child Porn; Child Sexual Abuse; Mobile Porn; and more. So, your child is in danger, and if you want to conquer safety, you will have to monitor, and take steps to safeguard your child against online dangers.
According to recent surveys, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Further studies reveal that pornographic websites are making more profit than each of CBS, ABC, and NBC television channels in a year. The studies claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children. These children are between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The results revealed that about 74% of all the porn sites had uncontrolled banners, while another 66% of the websites did not give adult content warnings. Furthermore, another 11% of the sites did not have ’sexually explicit content’ warnings and 25% boxed in their visitors by not letting them leave their websites. Only 3% of the websites out of more than 14 millions adult sites requested adult permission for minors. So, it is vital to protect your child now!
