The internet, parental controls, and child protection online have always been areas of great concern for parents and children alike. Thankfully, in the past, where Windows and Mac OS have dominated the personal computer market, it wasn’t too difficult for parents to learn how to block access to certain areas of the computer or specific websites. Nowadays, with the emergence of numerous mobile OS’ and devices, parents are largely left clueless.
In fact, it’s likely many parents will be unaware of the fact that their childs brand new mobile has unrestricted access to the web at all, never mind how to control it. This will leave children and young teenagers prone and vulnerable to pornography, cyber-bullying, stalking and awful language, among other threats.
Let’s for the sake of argument assume many parents are clued up, know exactly what type of phone their child is using and precisely what usage privileges have been set. There is simply no feasible way that a parent can monitor every possible means of internet access for their child. Whether it’s at the mall, over at a friend’s place or most likely the on mobile of one of their friends whose parents couldn’t care less what he/she comes across on the web.
As with my childhood and that of many of you out there, parents will need to offer an element of trust. Sadly today, even with trust, X-rated ads are thrown in our faces (many of which our adult minds have become oblivious to) and online bullying, abusive language and stalking is common place on all popular social networks. There are pornography sites out there with videos and pictures, less than two clicks from the homepage – and mobile sites to boot. Glamour models, women who sadly many children and teenagers look up to (at least in the UK), have their own social networks (like CandyCrib.com) with slutty video content and profiles accessible direct from the homepage. Sites like MySpace and increasingly Bebo and Facebook, are still filled with opportunity for pedophiles, stalkers and bullies to abuse…yet mobile phones are still a click or two away from access to it all. The mobile internet has witnessed phenomena like “Sexting”, usually involving female teens being encouraged to send intimate camera phone pictures to their boyfriends – often to find that when they split up, the pictures end up online and in the public domain.
Answers and What’s Currently Being Done
What’s difficult for me, writing this, is I don’t have any real answers or solutions. Banning children access to a mobile phone won’t solve any problems as they’ll have friends who still have access. Besides, mobile access can often provide a great deal of personal security, something important for children. We could look to the phone manufacturers and mobile OS developers for answers, but despite signing up to agreements and organisations (mentioned below), there are far too many of them out there for parents to really understand how to set the phones up correctly to ensure their child is well and truly protected.
One solution might be to put an age limit on certain types of phone, much like cigarettes, and therefore know for certain that if you’re under 16 that you can only have one of (say) three types of phone, It may seem to be a drastic and possibly ludicrous solution, but then again, maybe it isn’t. What’s likely to the be the most concrete option is to clamp down on ads and websites that give easy access to pornographic and adult material without real proof of age, and to ensure that the web (particular social networks) is rid of any abusive users and language.
Thankfully there are organisations and frameworks established to deal specifically with this area. One such organisation is The Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), an international, non-profit membership organization dedicated to working to develop a safer Internet. The institute works to make the online world safer for kids and their families by identifying and promoting best practice, tools and methods in the field of online safety, while also respecting free expression. FOSI establishes four pillars to the work of the Institute; these are Events, Public Policy, Technology and Education. Members include the likes of AOL, Google, British Telecom and MySpace.
The EU Safer Mobile Framework, is an agreement signed by leading mobile operators and content providers in February 2007, supposedly committed to safer mobile use by younger teenagers and children. The Framework describes principles and measures that the signatories committed to implementing on a national level such as access control for adult content, awareness-raising campaigns for parents and the fight against illegal content on mobiles.
The UKs mobile broadband operators have signed a voluntary code of practice which includes some measures to protect younger eyes from innapropriate content. The mobile broadband operators in the UK have signed a voluntary code of practice put forward by the communications regulator Ofcom which will make provisions to protect youngsters. Quite how it will actually protect children, we’ve yet to see.
Realistically
As exciting as these times are, its easy to forget the logistical, more human impact of new technology. The physical and psychological well-being of our children, as well as their reputations and the consequences and legal implications of their actions must be considered. It needs a combined effort from internet users, parents, organisations, mobile manufacturers, OS developers, work groups and online influentials before we see real strides in ensuring children can enjoy the web for what it largely is; a wealth of information the likes of which no child has ever experienced before.
very good article . . . i like a lot of the ideas you put out there and am curious to see what the trend is going to be in this area of child protection in the mobile space . . . keep up the good work.
:)
Thanks Zee – good stuff – as a father of kids who are just reaching the age of having their own cell phones, this will be something I will have to do more worrying about. I have already dealt with the computer issues – something else to look forward to.
Absolutely, and thank you for your kind words Graeme
Always drawn to your commentaries, and views. Your tretise above very appropriate. May I use this in a parent group address with correct attribution to the source??
Hi Zee,
This is a great “problem statement”. I don’t think there are any easy solutions. My prediction is that our kids are going to be far more exposed to media of all kinds than we have been, just as we are more than our parents have been, and that this will be both good and bad. I’m lucky enough to have had at least one clued-in parent to teach me about the internets and how to avoid unsavoury data, and I’ve learned to clean up malware when things go awry. I hope I’ll be able to do the same for my kids when I have them.
Love your work.
Parents should install vpn connection in kids phones. So when kids browse the internet – they do so through home network. Then at home network [technically capable] parents can restricts the access to certain sites and log access to potentially wrong places. [i am horrified i used the word LOG, but as a parent of almost 1 year old i start to thinking about this].
Other possibility may be white-listing certain sites or using some service like OpenDNS to manage that process.
This still leaves the door open for internet connections other than browsing (im, video streaming, etc.) but it is a start.
I believe that pornography is a social issue that needs to be dealt with. I believe that there have been several attempts by the government to try to control this subject in an appropriate matter. However there can be so much more that they can do just because there are so many people involved.
I watched the Front line movie American Porn this was a very interesting movie. The movie starts out by mentioning how “popular” pornography is to the American society. The people whom sell these videos make millions upon millions. It was also interesting to note how young girls seek job opportunities in this field as a quick way to fame. One girl wanted to be an actress and flew in from another state to become “Barely Legal.” They have quick access to money for performing sex acts and getting video taped for it. So many companies produce such films. Its funny how people would like to stereo type who does this and who does what. On another note a lot of the producers are highly educated people and not the “typical” people.
Offering these kinds of services has been a way for hotels and companies to attract more customers. One hotel representative said it was pretty much as offering alcohol, as a choice, nothing forced upon anyone. Many big companies such as Yahoo! and AT&T offer this as an option in their services also. Once they started doing so they received so much more money!! The video went into the different kinds of porn there is, and how they are meant for different customers. At the end of the movie, a priest started talking but I am not sure what exactly the point of the priest was. All in all it is very interesting movie and still firmly believes that it is a social issue that confronts our society. It is an issue that is rising to the “normality” of society. Meaning that there is many people whom believe this isn’t an issue there fore its not dangerous or consists of any risks to anyone. In another note the book, Social Problems, A Down to Earth Approach, by James M. Henslin, and Lori Ann Fowler. Mentions the following;
“The term victimless crime to refer to illegal acts between consenting adults. The crime has no victim because the people agree to do something with or for one another. “(Henslin, Fowler, 2010, p.72)
Does this include pornography and prostitution? The Front Line movie, American Porn indicated that the majority of participants in these services are by choice, or have been influenced by others to do so. One girl said:
“I was going to school and I wanted to go to this dance the night after. I needed new clothes. I went out at ten o’clock and home at twelve. I had three tricks the first time and fifteen dollars (about $40 in today’s money) for every trick. (Davis, 1978, p. 206)
Where do all these young girls get the idea to get started in a business like this? In my opinion many of them are forced just like the girl mentioned above because it is a quick way to obtain what they need. This can be whether it is clothes, accessories, or money. It may start like this is just for the quick but there are many people whom are benefiting from this multibillion-dollar a year business. For example the girl may think that she is doing well, she’s contributing to her own wealth yet, it’s to many others.
Others say that it is a question of “taste”, that it is only based on social classes. I don’t agree that this is accurate. I think that there is a lot of pornography being done in all kinds of ways. For example the book mentions a specific problem amongst teenagers. Technology advances have made it easier for minors to become prostitutes. The book mentions about a particular example about a boy who felt isolated with out any friends. He then started making his own website, and waited for responses from other teenagers, hoping to make new friends. Yet he only got responses from older men. These men flattered the boy with what he needed to hear. This became a sort of game for the boy because he got flattered and paid at the same time. (Henslin, Fowler, 2010, p.68)
Where was this boy’s parent? Maybe he had no idea how far or how dangerous this was. His parents could have thought that he was just sleeping like regular kids or just talking to his friends. I believe that a major issue of this is because of the lack of education. Parents and well anyone does not know what they don’t want to know.
I work in an office where it is a pretty laid back environment. There really isn’t much structure on to certain things, for example the computers. We have several students all around the age of high school that come and volunteer to the office. They use the computers all the time. We being typical distracted people didn’t think much about watching what they are doing or blocking the sites. We then all of a sudden kept getting viruses in our computers. One day one of the computers started popping up inappropriate scenes. It was embarrassing because we didn’t know what was going on. We got on track and started restricting all the sites because these were the ones that were giving us the viruses. Plus it is completely inappropriate. Again, I DO believe pornography is an issue and we’ve got to do our part to handle it.