Keeping Children Safe From Prying Eyes

HOW many of you know what your children are doing on the Internet? If you don’t, then it is high time for you to do some checking before it is too late. The Internet has been known for being the world’s largest information library and the many other benefits it brings with it, but with all the conveniences also comes danger in disguise preying on innocent children and teenagers.

Clear and present danger

Today, we often read in the newspapers or watch TV news about molest, rape, paedophiles, kidnap, and even murder cases that involve children and teenagers, and most of these cases are said to originate from some sort of online activities such as surfing and chatting.

According to a study by Computer Associates, last year alone four to five million children worldwide were reported getting unwanted sexual solicitations, and 65 per cent of the cases occurred in the Internet chatrooms and another 24 per cent came in instant messages.

Twenty-five per cent of children were also reported receiving “unwanted exposure to pictorial images of naked people or of people having sex”, which the study estimates reached 5.4 million to 6.4 million children. The study further reveals that 71 per cent of these unwanted exposures occurred while they were searching or surfing the Internet, and 28 per cent happened when opening an e- mail message or clicking on hyperlinks within the e-mail message.

CA’s managing director, Asia South, Piti Pramotedham says the threats are not just all about inappropriate content. “What is more worrying is the increase in sex crimes on our teenagers from people that they meet in chatrooms,” he says, adding that in the US last year, 75 per cent of sex crimes involving 13- to 15-year-olds originated from the Internet chatrooms.

If you think that children and teenagers access these inappropriate content at cybercafes, then think again. Most of these unwanted exposures are said to happen at home with 67 per cent of the cases, while another 15 per cent and three per cent occurred in schools and libraries respectively.

Pramotedham says many of the porn sites creators are clever in choosing words that will most likely be keyed in by children. For example, if children were to type Animal Farm (a famous novel by George Orwell) in Yahoo Search, the third list of the first page result will already lead them to a site where girls have sex with animals. “These are the things that our children will see on the Internet,” he says.

Even though cases of children being trapped in online pornography are not common in Malaysia, we should not take it lightly as the Internet has no borders. It’s just that our Internet and broadband penetration is still very low, but when this picks up, we should be more alert. Cases like this are increasingly happening in more developed countries and countries with higher Internet penetration.

“If we don’t think about it now, our kids will be living in danger,” Pramotedham says.

What can we do

As parents, what can we do to minimise these inappropriate content from reaching our children? Do we lock up the power cord? There are three answers to this. Firstly is education.

Before we talk to our children about the Internet, we must have some knowledge first. “By knowing the working process of the Internet would allow us to know where our children have been going in cyberspace,” says Pramotedham.

“It would be good if parents know some of the features of the Internet, such as `cookies’, which is a list of sites visited,” he says.

For parents who do not know much about the Internet, there are Web sites such as www.pagi.org.sg, netsmartz.org, and www.keepyourkidssafe.com that would help them undertand the Net better and how to protect their children from online harm.

“Parents need to do something rather than nothing,” Pramotedham says.

Secondly, parents need to secure the computers from potential online harm like spyware, adware, adult content, and viruses. One of the ways, says Pramotedham, is to install a personal firewall.

“Parents need not spend much money to buy the software. Microsoft Windows XP has an in-built firewall, but not many parents know about this. You just need to switch it on,” he says.

“They can also use the anti-virus and anti-spyware already available on Yahoo Toolbar for example,” he says, adding that parents can also do parental control such as Web filtering, chat- room blocking, time limits, and stealth monitoring and logging by turning on the Web filtering function in the search engine.

“However, this must be done discreetly so that the kids can still surf the Internet. If you block everything, they will resort to other means to access the Internet contents, such as at schools, friend’s house or cybercafes,” he says.

“That’s why parents need to have some education on the Internet first before they can do the said preventive measures,” he said.

Thirdly, and probably the best medicine, is talking to the kids themselves. “Parents need to talk to their kids on the dangers lurking on the Net, and work as a team. You need to be open with them on matters like this,” he says.

Pramotedham says the software are just tools, but without advice and love from the parents, they are of little use. “What is more important is that parents have to educate themselves and at the same time communicate with their children the dangers associated with the Internet,” he says.

“At the same time, we have to balance our concerns as we do not want to deprive the children of the benefits of the Internet,” he says.

Local scene

Locally, the level of awareness among parents on Internet safety is on the increasing side.

According to Malaysian Coalition for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse (MCPCSA)’s chairman Sabri Rahman, the level of awareness among parents in Malaysia on Internet safety for children is on the rise.

“Parents basically know what the threats are, but they have yet to translate their knowledge into action,” he says.

He says MCPCSA works constantly with the Government to promote this type of awareness among parents. This is done through seminars in schools and the community.

Sabri says parents should not leave Internet safety education to schools alone as this is their job as parents. “The education needs to start at home,” he says.

Organisations are also playing their part in helping to promote Internet safety among children. CA, for example, is donating its anti-spyware, anti-virus, and firewall solutions to organisations like MCPCSA.

Pramotedham says CA’s donation of security solutions to MCPCSA is a step towards working with the Government and NGOs to keep kids safe on the Net.