How do you protect your child online?
The Internet is a big place, it has a billion users and not all of them are honest and some have evil intent. Adults have a difficult enough time keeping safe on the Internet. Now we have children using computers at earlier and earlier ages, how do we control that risk?
As always we have the folk whose answer is 'don't let the kids near it'. Which is often merely a way of evading the problem. One supposedly serious report from a supposedly serious learned medical body tells us that there is no proof that computers do not do harm so the 'safe' option is for parents to ideally stop their children using computers or to seriously limit their use. I found this advice offensive, as anyone with a scientific training shoud. Ignorance is never a sound basis for offering advice to others.
I taught myself to use a computer at 11. I have seen a child teach himself to read using a computer at three. There is no substitute for the human teacher, but it might also be the case that there is no substitute for the computer as well. No human teacher can compete with the patience of the machine.
So how do we start being serious about online child safety.
It occurs to me that one starting point for a serious consideration of online child safety would be to ask computer security specialists what they do. They have (or should) have a much better idea of the potential risks, and they are trained to evaluate potential solutions.
So if you have views on this I would appreciate you sharing them with me by email at hallam@dotcrimemanifesto.com. In particular I am interested in knowing:
- What are the ages of your children?
- Which child online safety issues have you considered?
- What security controls have you employed?
- Are there security measures that someone advised you to use that you consider to be misguided?
You can also comment in this thread by for obvious reasons it is probably not a good idea to mention your own children if you do so.
