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I listened to an interesting opinion on the BBC the other day that the internet wasn't fit for purpose and that no sane parent should ever allow their child on

I listened to an interesting opinion on the BBC the other day that the internet wasn't fit for purpose and that no sane parent should ever allow their child on it at all[1]. Her argument is that we don't expect parents to police their children all the time in real life, shop owners have legal responsibilities to stop children accessing inappropriate products, children are stopped from purchasing alcohol in bars, etc. and yet on the internet somehow it's the parent's responsibility all the time all of a sudden. And if your child is with other people, those restrictions may be totally waived. The problem is, it is trivial for a child to access incredibly disturbing and PTSD inducing material that is accessible to any child with ease, beheadings, murders, the most vile and disturbing porn you couldn't even imagine, all two clicks of a button away from your 11 year old. She definitely has a point. I'm not sure what the solution is as I love the internet being open, but a huge proportion of the planet is made up of children and they can go watch ISIS behead someone or a woman shit in the mouth of a man whenever their classmate dares them. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039wy7f http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p039wy7f

esaym 11y ago
Yes, it is an issue. And worse, the web has become something so important that you can't just outright deny all access to it. Yet it is still akin to dropping your child off on the wrong side of town unattended and simply "hoping for the best". The old saying used to just be "have the family computer in a public room (living room,ect) and don't allow private access". But with every phone, tv, game console, alarm clock, whatever, all having their own web browsers, the only way to truly filter is from the single source of the ISP connection. 7 years ago I had an idea to make web filtering routers and ethernet bridges. But even then it was becoming too hard to reliably do. And I didn't want to market something for family protection that I couldn't 100% reliably guarantee works. And most recently, a somewhat home constrained neighbor that lived by me wanted me to secure his internet "the way mine is". He was tired of fighting porn addictions. I set him up the best I could, but within a year I had gotten word that he had convinced another friend/relative to buy him a smart phone with unlimited internet access...
vacri 11y ago
> Her argument is that we don't expect parents to police their children all the time in real life Up until the child starts hitting double-digit ages, we actually do expect just that. Long gone are the days of society being okay with parents letting 7-year-olds roam free and play.
xxpor 11y ago
>The problem is, it is trivial for a child to access incredibly disturbing and PTSD inducing material that is accessible to any child with ease, beheadings, murders, the most vile and disturbing porn you couldn't even imagine, all two clicks of a button away from your 11 year old. She definitely has a point. I'm not sure what the solution is as I love the internet being open, but a huge proportion of the planet is made up of children and they can go watch ISIS behead someone or a woman shit in the mouth of a man whenever their classmate dares them. I'd much rather have my children see that and talk to me about it because they trust me rather than not mentioning it because they worked around a web filter (which is inevitable [check out my ubuntu live usb stick, or my ssh tunnel]) and are afraid of getting in trouble.
e12e 11y ago
I'd say the number one real danger on the Internet are child predators -- and there's no sane way to protect from that, just like there's no sane way to protect from that in the real world. But education and dialogue (with your children) helps. I'd probably be more worried about all the porn that your 11 year old watch, than the beheadings. Staying ahead of the curve wrt healthy sex ed. is a real challenge.

esaym 11y ago

Yes, it is an issue. And worse, the web has become something so important that you can't just outright deny all access to it. Yet it is still akin to dropping your child off on the wrong side of town unattended and simply "hoping for the best". The old saying used to just be "have the family computer in a public room (living room,ect) and don't allow private access". But with every phone, tv, game console, alarm clock, whatever, all having their own web browsers, the only way to truly filter is from the single source of the ISP connection. 7 years ago I had an idea to make web filtering routers and ethernet bridges. But even then it was becoming too hard to reliably do. And I didn't want to market something for family protection that I couldn't 100% reliably guarantee works. And most recently, a somewhat home constrained neighbor that lived by me wanted me to secure his internet "the way mine is". He was tired of fighting porn addictions. I set him up the best I could, but within a year I had gotten word that he had convinced another friend/relative to buy him a smart phone with unlimited internet access...

vacri 11y ago

> Her argument is that we don't expect parents to police their children all the time in real life Up until the child starts hitting double-digit ages, we actually do expect just that. Long gone are the days of society being okay with parents letting 7-year-olds roam free and play.

xxpor 11y ago

>The problem is, it is trivial for a child to access incredibly disturbing and PTSD inducing material that is accessible to any child with ease, beheadings, murders, the most vile and disturbing porn you couldn't even imagine, all two clicks of a button away from your 11 year old. She definitely has a point. I'm not sure what the solution is as I love the internet being open, but a huge proportion of the planet is made up of children and they can go watch ISIS behead someone or a woman shit in the mouth of a man whenever their classmate dares them. I'd much rather have my children see that and talk to me about it because they trust me rather than not mentioning it because they worked around a web filter (which is inevitable [check out my ubuntu live usb stick, or my ssh tunnel]) and are afraid of getting in trouble.

e12e 11y ago

I'd say the number one real danger on the Internet are child predators -- and there's no sane way to protect from that, just like there's no sane way to protect from that in the real world. But education and dialogue (with your children) helps. I'd probably be more worried about all the porn that your 11 year old watch, than the beheadings. Staying ahead of the curve wrt healthy sex ed. is a real challenge.