Archive for March, 2010
Is your child sneaking onto the Internet at night?
I was talking to a mom the other day about her 10 year old son, whom she was very concerned. The other evening when she woke up in the middle of the night, she found her son in the living room on the family computer at 2:00 am. At 9:00 pm, she had tucked him in for the evening. She didn’t know how long he had been up or what he was looking at on the computer. She went to browse the history, and he had already deleted it (yes, a 10 year old).
She isn’t very computer savvy, and is already trying to catch up with her son’s computer knowledge. However, she knew that something had to be done and that her 10 year old on a computer with no supervision was out of the question.
I’m sure this parent is not the only one that has had to deal with this issue. Whether you are computer savvy or not, there are simple, effective tools out there that can help us in keeping our kids safe when they are on the Internet and keep them off the computer when they should be sleeping.
A great solution is parental controls software will that will allow you to set the time of day when each family member is allowed on the computer. Sleep better at night knowing your children are safely tucked in their beds and not sneaking on the computer “after hours”.
.xxx: A false sense of security?
The Internet corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board recently voted to postpone making a decision on their proposal to create a “.xxx” domain for adult Web sites. In the meantime, the CEO and general counsel of ICANN are to draft a “report of possible process options” over the next two weeks which will then be posted online for 45 days. The proposal will then be rediscussed at the June session.
Although having a “.xxx” domain for adult sites sounds great on the surface in protecting people online from inappropriate sites, there is still the issue of porn sites choosing not to change over and people outside the porn industry that post pornographic photos, videos and other content.
Stay informed. Know that even if the “.xxx” domain is passed in June, this is not guaranteed protection from inappropriate material. We still have the responsibility of protecting our families online.
Chatroulette Maps
In just a couple month’s time, Chatroulette has added what it calls Chatroulette Maps.
It uses Google Maps to show the IP of where the online users are, with a picture of the user.
There is no type of age verification to get into the site, other than the message pop up that says you should be 18 or older before using the map.
Once you click into the map, you can then select areas of the US, such as places near your home and see the “pins” of all the online users. Clicking on the red “pins” then pops up a photo of that user, tells their city and state, and tells if their webcam is currently active.
Just clicking on a few of the “pins”, there were normal pictures of people, and there were a lot of men showing themselves, girlfriends showing off their boyfriend’s private parts, and posters like the one below.
Be aware of Chatroulette and the Chatroulette Maps sites and be proactive in filtering out these sites to protect your families from seeing inappropriate materials and from using the site and making your location known.