Telus openly offers pay-per-download adult content and I was reading an article that stated “Telus’ decision to offer pornography was partly based on its tracking of the Internet sites accessed by its subscribers. That tracking discovered that about 20 percent of the search terms entered by clients on their mobile Internet browsers were intended to find adult content. Further, 13 of the top 25 websites accessed were pornographic websites of the most explicit kind; and only two of those sites offered any kind of “control” — asking subscribers to affirm that they were over 18.” This bring me to the project Blogger Power, which is a campaign to safeguard the internet for children against pornography.
I can see where the creators of Project Blogger Power, Mihaela and Jon are coming from and what they are doing is admirable. I applaud them for their efforts.
I certainly believe in protecting our children, but I’m not sure if having the blogosphere encourage adult sites to password protect pages is the answer here or if it will work.
Seeing inappropriate material is not the greatest danger to our children online. Statics show that the average age of a child’s first Internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old. 90% 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online ( most while doing homework.)
The greater threat comes from children using Internet communication tools such as chat rooms, network sites, e-mail and instant messaging that can put them at risk of encountering online predators and seeing pornography.
We should be addressing the concern that comes from Social network sites like MySpace, Facebook and Xanga. I believe in adult supervision and education. Both schools and libraries should have filters in place as a means to prevent children in schools and libraries from accessing pornography.
Statics report that every second - 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography with 97% of men searching for free porn, 86% searching for playboy, where 64% of women are searching for adult sex and 59% of women are searching for cyber sex. There are 72 million visitors to pornography: Monthly. 34 % of internet users have received unwanted exposure to sexual material online. Internet porn statistics showed there are about 4.2 million pornographic websites constituting 12 per cent of the total websites.
Sadly children’s character names are even linked to thousands of porn links. At CyberTipline.org one can report pornographic websites that trick minors into viewing pornographic material. It is a crime to knowingly use a misleading domain name to deceive children into viewing content that is offensive and harmful to minors. Anyone doing so could be looking at spending four years in prison if convicted.
We have a responsibility to help make the internet safer for our children, but I believe the first and best answer to this growing problem is adult supervision and education.
What are your thoughts?
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9 responses so far ↓
Rach
// Mar 12, 2007 at 4:17 am
I agree that children are susceptible to exposure to pornography on the internet. It’s a disturbing and frightening reality. I read about this campaign in fact, I wrote a poem called Protect the Gentle Hearts as my own little way of supporting this noteworthy cause.
Thanks Rose for sharing your insights about this.
Paul Berube
// Mar 12, 2007 at 4:24 am
Rose,
I wasn’t aware of some of these statistics until I read your article. The number of people who actually use pornographic web sites is phenominal. In my experience, I’ve received unsolicited sex mail on my email account and have put blocks on them. If we, as adults are so susceptible to such unwanted solicitation could one ever imagine our children being exposed to such? I don’t pretend to have the answers but I tend to agree that, until someone develops a better method of monitoring these sites that direct supervision seems to be the only answer for now. Thank You for this very informative article and for your concern. Blessings Always, Paul.
Crystal
// Mar 12, 2007 at 7:36 am
I am a firm believer in supervision. I have had some lengthy discussions with parents in the past about so called “safe” chat places for kids - NOTHING is safe if it is not supervised! Those so called “safe” chat sites are actually more dangerous then blatantly unsafe sites like Myspace for one reason: Parents think they are safe.
Do we really think pedofiles are stupid? They are more then aware of the fact that parents are more likely to leave a child alone online if they think it is safe. Parents - supervise ALWAYS - even if you think it is safe.
That being said - supervision and the easy access to the porn sites are related but not all one issue. I believe that as adults, we also have a responsibility to limit the amount of garbage that is available to the eyes of those children who’s parents aren’t willing to do the right thing.
Parents are the 1st responsible party - but we all know that children have a way of getting around that. Think about how many things you managed to do/get/etc as a young teen that your parents weren’t 100% aware of. It’s the same with this. It’s easy to monitor a young child - not so easy with a young teen who is out, at friends, online at school, etc. So, I believe that the owners of these adult sites should also hold some responsibility as well and should be called on it.
Yes it’s not the biggest problem - but that’s not a good reason not to pay attention to it right? It is always wise to attacked every problem from more then on angle.
Hazel
// Mar 12, 2007 at 12:53 pm
Wonderful essay Rose.
I’ve been following this topic as well. I was just informed that there is a new social networking site offering a $2.00 “age verification” fee for adult subscribers. I’m not sure how it works or how a person can prove their age online but i am curious about it.
In the end though I agree with you, supervision and education is really the primary tool of protection and prevention. While the children are entering the online realm, and even before we should be attempting to coach them about appropriate online behavior.
We begin teaching our children about stranger danger and good touch vs bad touch early. This is a good time to also address virtual neighborhood dangers as well as our kids are being introduced earlier and earlier to internet technologies, as they should be in this technical age.
I’m off to read the Blogger Power link you provided. Thank-you.
Hazel.
Viola Jaynes
// Mar 12, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Rose, thank for this very important and informative post. It is scary what our children are being exposed to at such a young age these days. Adults need to be educated in order to better educate their children. Your posts are always very informative and helpful! Keep up the great work!!!
Rose DesRochers
// Mar 12, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I personally think there is too much obscenity on the internet and I too am concerned with children being exposed to it.
Let us not forget too that our sexualized culture is bombarding children with messages about sex.
Children in grade seven at my son’s school were caught with a playboy book and one of the students was suspended for accessing an adult site.
Children get all kinds of stuff on their mobiles and sent to their email box.
I was reading in the Times that “More than one-third of 13-year-old Alberta boys view Internet porn “too many times to count,” and parents have only the vaguest notion about it.”
As the article pointed out there’s nothing new about the fascination adolescent boys have for naked women, but they are now able to have access to it through the net.
Researchers from the University of Alberta surveyed 429 students, ages 13 and 14, from 17 schools and over one third of the kids admitted they’d watched porn videos “too many times to count.”
You really don’t think this is just an internet problem do you?
I think Parents need to get more informed and supervise their children. If parents are concerned than they need to talk to their children about it. Computers should be moved from teens’ bedrooms and parental blocks should be installed.
Crystal, again I applaud their efforts, but there are 4.2 million pornographic websites online. Internet Pornography Sales is a 4.9 billion dollar industry. Do you honestly think that these porn webmasters are going to listen to bloggers and password protect their pages? Why would they? Porn is the largest industry on the internet.
Rose DesRochers
// Mar 12, 2007 at 4:16 pm
Viola, I agree!
Hazel, thank you for dropping by. I reading reading that “Lawmakers in Connecticut unveiled and debated a bill earlier this week that could require MySpace and other social networking sites to verify the ages of its users.”
Paul, thank you for dropping by and commenting.
Rach, you are right! It is a very disturbing and frightening reality.
Leo Knight
// Mar 14, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Hey there…long time no hear. In a nutshell7, you are correct. It matters not a if Canada tries to legislate and control the internet. The ability to host off-shore where such regulatory controls don’t exist is too easy. Ergo, your placing the onus on the parent is the correct position. My $0.02……
Ken Allan
// Sep 6, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Kia ora Rose!
I got here from your latest post on going back to school (good on you BTW). I am ever shocked at the statistics that I learn about Internet use in this regard.
I attended a Netsafe conference in July this year and wrote a post or two on related thoughts. I agree 100% with your take on parenting and the need for careful supervision.
Ka kite
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