This story today in a newspaper really shocked me

[Saltire]

here.
We have our pcs in the dining room, and a laptop, and montior everything the DSes (13 and 11) do. They don't have email accounts facebook, MSN etc. yet somehow this child was able to get contacted by these people

don't want to read whole article but bumping for discussion

One of the problems seems to be that, despite all the warnings, newspaper articles etc, a lot of people don't really understand the internet. There are people out there that still have no adequate firewall, anti-virus or spyware software, others don't bother to update the software they've got or rely on free software downloaded years ago. Hence their systems are often woefully out of date and hackers can get access to their computers. Wifi systems and mobile phones are particularly susceptible

The truth is that while the internet is a wonderful technological development it can also be dangerous and everyone should be aware of that.

Some people also think that once they've deleted comments etc, from their blogs, social network pages etc, those posts are gone for good.

The only shocking thing really is the leniency of the sentences.

This has nothing to do with firewalls, hackers or deleted comments on social networks.

This is about parents who allowed a 13yo to have a laptop and then didn't pay any attention to what she was doing with it.

My heart goes out to this poor girl for what she experienced but, bloody hell, what on earth were her parents thinking?

Snorbs: Exactly, the parents didn't have appropriate software installed on the laptop.

JohannaM - you don't know this for sure though do you? It could be that these predators can get through any software.

This isn't a matter of software unless your content blocking software is going to block things like facebook and MSN. This is about parents being present while a child is using a computer connected to a global network.

That's just not possible though with teenagers. From what I've read, people check the history on a regular basis, so things like this would be picked up quickly.

Actually, while you are here Snorbs, how do I put controls on DSi's? I don't currently have any controls on my computer as it's in the living room and is supervised, but the DSi's go anywhere.

If parents are stupid enough to leave a kid alone to surf the web without educating her about the dangers and insuring adequate software is installed (along with software that monitors what sites the child is visiting) then perhaps they shouldn't be allowed to be parents!

I want to know just how long the child was left alone to surf the web how she sees fit.

I consider myself to be extremely laid back but I don't let my DD use a PC for hours on end in secret.

The DSi has a parental control feature on it. You can select which features you want to be accessible. It doesn't do selective web content filtering, instead it allows you to choose whether the browser is usable or not. You can also turn off access to a variety of other things as well.

Here are some more details.

Thanks Snorbs. That is very disappointing that it is all or nothing.

It's a limited device with a primary role of playing games, not browsing the web. It doesn't have much processor power or built-in memory capacity. All of these are strikes against it for having content filtering built in to the browser; particularly the memory limitations. Then there are the issues with keeping such a filter list up to date and who would pay for it.

The bottom line is that if you don't trust your DCs to be responsible enough to browse the web without supervision then it is your responsibility to ensure that they can't. Filtering is never enough by itself. If that means turning off browsers in portable games devices, moving the family PC to somewhere you can keep an eye on it and not letting them have laptops in their bedrooms then that's what you do.

I know Snorbs. I will have to turn off the browsers in the DSi's. My kids are only 8 so it's not really trust, it's that they would google for something, and anything can come up.

And yes, the PC is in the living room and also the Wii with it's browser.

i was surprised to find that the daughters (both about 10yrs) of 2 of my not so close friends had their own facebook accounts with no privacy settings. looked like anyone could contact these little girls with their profile pics showing that they were obviously very young. I'm just hoping the parents are not naive and are supervising their use of facebook.

I need newspaper details as my pc blocks the link. Thanking you in advance.