DRUNKNORGY

To raise awareness of the dangers to children in Internet Chat rooms.
Do you think they are spending enough ?

ProperCharlie

Do you think it will make the slightest bit of difference?

ChrisB

I had to laugh yesterday when some Home Office minister was on about putting 'Panic Buttons' in chat rooms.

Erm, okay!

ChrisB

On prime time TV, fap all I expect.

druddle

The advert certainly gets the point across but the best bit of advice was Carol Vorderman on GMTV yesterday.

"Take the PC out of the bedroom and into a family room".

Makes sense really. I know you cant watch kids all the time but if its in a room where others are and can look at it they are less likely to engage in conversations.

Dave

Devil's Refugee

The wife was telling me about that programme last night and some of the stories made me shiver

BuRR

I deal with this every day guys. Not nice.

ChrisB

Do you think it will work BuRR?

Obviously needs addressing, but when ministers come up with ideas like panic buttons, I get the idea they are out of their depth.

BuRR

No - not really.

I think they need to get some legislation in place to outlaw "grooming" and some other aspects that I'm not going to go into as it may compromise my work.

Mice_Elf

PCs should have a wee box connected to them that scans in your fingerprints. When you first get the PC you scan in the entire family and input their ages...then to log on, you re-scan and it allows you access to your age-level (set by the parents, or AOL if you're too scared to tell your children what not to look at... )

Then, it will only allow you into specific age-orientated chat rooms. Of course, this will only work if paedophiles don't create an account with an age of 13, of course...

ChrisB

That's fair enough BuRR.

I get the feeling you guys who are working with these cases on a daily basis have ideas drawn from years of experience but no one consults you...

DRUNKNORGY

My 9 year old has been into these rooms before now and told people she was 15. The first thing they ask is A/S/L (Age,Sex/Location).

I was livid

MATTeL

Biometeric security devices are available (SONY Puppy and some Toshiba laptops) that use fingerprint security.

The Puppy (I have no idea why they called it that) even checks for blood flow.

However I don't see the need for this level of security on a home PC.

What is wrong with watching the kids? Like it has been said before bring the PC in a family room. Educate the kids into the dangers and keep an eye on them, be an active parent!

Use the BIOS password if you don't trust them (sad state of affairs) not to sneak on to the PC without permission.

ChrisB

There's going to be more than one household where the kids know more about the PC and using it than the parents...

DRUNKNORGY

Its not the lock on the PC which I think is neccessary, Its awareness by the kids that there are grown men using these rooms and they really have no idea who is using them. Just as the kids create this fantasy persona, its also a risk that others do as well. I don't want to restrict access to the net for my kids as its a part of their future, I am just not happy with this aspect of it.

Mice_Elf

Trouble is, PCs play too much a part of children's lives these days... There are loads of instances where instead of looking something up in an Encyclopaedia, for instance, they go to Encarta and copy and paste without actually reading anything. A friend of mine is a teacher and he once had 23 essays about Henry VIII handed to him all nigh on identical...

Mice_Elf

There's not much you CAN do, to be honest, about protecting children from perverts and paedophiles... Watching what they do, or bringing it into the family room is an option, but you're still not going to be able to watch EVERYthing they do. Restricting the time they are on the net is another option which doesn't have much merit, either.

It's basically a question of trust and good judgement about how mature your children are. Some of these paedophiles can be awfully convincing and as family life is suffering, more children turn to friendship away from the core.

brickboy

There is quite a lot you can do: as other have said, PC in a family room. D/L software like Cyber Patrol or similar, you can get up to 6 month free trials. No measures are foolproof but it all helps.

I've worked with web filtering people on a project for the Police obscene publications units and some of the stuff found on known child **** haunts is beyond belief.

MrDeference

The onus is on the parent. Educating parents is the only way forwards because they have to set up and maintain the perimeter.
Unfortunately some parents will never step up to the task (along with a million other things they will fail to do for their children), believing it is society's duty to raise their child for them.

DRUNKNORGY

Agree about the onus being on the parent, but I think its a fine line between being oppressive and overbearing to your kids and being protective in their eyes. How will they ever learn to deal with situations unless they confront them. Its difficult to sit over your child and monitor their conversations without being seen a interfering, This will put up a wall of mistrust from the child which will give the parent even less of an idea of what their kids get up to on or offline. I made my kids sit through the advert last night and the attitude was 'yea ! ok dad whatever' but they were shocked by the grown man with the childs voice'. If it makes them realise this could be the case, they like many other children who use the net will realise that there is risk involved in handing out personal info.

Mice_Elf

Agreed - you can molly-coddle your child too much and then they are faced with the big outside world with not one iota of a clue as to how to deal with it. It's a bit like germs, I guess - have to have a modicum of exposure to build up an immunity.

marty_t3

I think some folk are taking it a bit too far.

Most chat programs have a history so you can look back over what your kid has been up to (ie ICQ/MSN/Yahoo). Turn off the scripting in the browser and most other chat sessions won't work, thus restricting the chat use to one with recordable history. Use something like cyberpatrol to restrict the type of sites that can be visitied and the pc is then pretty safe for a kid to use.

If this "panic button" idea goes ahead.. can you imagine how many people will be pushing it for a laugh or because someone has pissed them off with a few flames.

Nothing is going to harm the kid sitting in front of the PC... it's when the kid leaves the safety of the house that you need to worry. If a kid is old enough to leave the house on their own then they are old enough to understand the dangers of meeting "strangers" from the internet.

I met my girlfriend in a chat room, we've been together for 2 years and have just started a family. I'm not going to stop my kid getting the benefits of the internet.

Stopping kids using chat rooms because of some bad cases is like stopping them learning to drive because some people crash.

ChrisB

I'm intrigued what happens when it's pushed...

Mice_Elf

PC explodes.

dsmith

Chris

I think the plan is that a big scary moderator tunrs up to keep an eye on whats happening.

Nice to see we're already protected here

Deano

Bajie

What about NetNanny software etc.
Keep this on track. My littl'un will soon be using the pc [under supervision].
Amazingly, I never thought about him copy/pasting things from Encarta or World Book ...

ChristianR

iTrader: (1)

Why not just ban the internet for anyone under the age of 16? And if a child is caught on the net under that age, prosecute the parents for not being responsible enough!!

DRUNKNORGY

ChristianR
Following your assertion would mean punishing the victims, not the perpetrators, so it doesn't really hold much water.
It would also be similar to what happens in countries where many unwanted pregnancies are caused by certain factions of the community holding their young people in ignorance through religious oppression.

DRUNKNORGY

How much advertising do you get for £1 million ?.
Kids are very gullible !. It seems to me that many of these teen chatrooms are full of deceit. The kids lie about their age to each other.
Don't know about the panic button, sounds unworkable.

Education of the parents is just as important IMHO.

[Edited by DRUNKNORGY - 1/7/2003 9:40:29 AM]

druddle

You can get biometric keyboards that have fingerprint security, as [/url=http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/rl/peripherals/keyboards/kbpcid.html]Fujitsu Siemens[/url] do one.

All the security is done thru Windows (i have done it with 2000 and XP).

Dave

[Edited by druddle - 1/7/2003 12:02:09 PM]