I was tagged by Dari Donovan to participate. This is a subject near and dear to my heart for a couple of reasons. One reason being that I have young children of my own. The second being that all children deserve to be protected online and off.
A Request to ALL Webmasters of Adult Sites:
Truth be told, I don't respect your business...however in this country we do have a little thing called freedom of speech. With that said: Stop offering things via email. Any smart kid can figure out what date of birth would make him or her 18. Kids are corrupted easily enough as it is...they don't need any help. Don't offer "teen pics". While I understand that these "teens" probably are not actually teens, you are just fueling the fire for perverts to go out and attack some little kid.
Advice to Parents:
1. Put your computer in a central location. You should be able to see over your kid's shoulder at any given time.
2. If your kid changes the screen the minute you walk into the room, change it back. If you don't know how, hire yourself a computer savvy young adult to teach you how.
3. Learn to "read" the cookies and temporary internet files to figure out where your kid is going if / when you aren't home.
4. Get a good filter.
5. Remember that in this day you don't have to worry about the child predator lurking behind the bush at the playground - you have to worry about him / her lurking on message boards or chat pretending to be a 13 year old kid.
6. Still doesn't work? Scare the pee pee out of them. Find the story on Christina (can't think of her last name)..the young, pretty cheerleader who was 13 or 14 and was supposed to be meeting a boy her own age. He ended up being a grown man that choked her to death and threw her in a creek.
I am tagging (not 20 because I think that's excessive): Mert, Mix, & Melissa.
I'll hit the issue up on tomorrows post!