Hi.
First post, thanks to the BBC news this morning.
Up until 4 years ago i probably had similar draconian thoughts to the OP.
As someone who had never touched a computer(bar the C64 25 years earlier)just the mere prospect of my son & daughters being let loose on the Internet terrified me. In fact, it was that apprehension that delayed us getting our first computer & Internet connection for as long as it did.
When i was finally overruled by the rest of the family i decided i needed to take appropriate action so i sat down at that first(of many) computer one day to try and learn enough to keep my kids safe from the computers & Internet ....and indeed keep the computers & Internet safe from them.
Our first computer was no brand new machine but instead the messed up old Windows Desktop that a friend no longer needed.
The better half thought that learning our way about on an older machine would be less risky then jumping straight on to an expensive new one with no clue whatsoever.
Needless to say that particular installation of Windows was in a right old state, as i was soon to discover and while i nearly came close to lobbing that thing OUT the Windows on more than one occasion i actually persevered and spent the next 4 months learning all about dodgy/missing drivers, dubious DLLs, BSODs, Viruses, spyware, malware and just about every other Windows related issue you could possibly imagine. The previous owner had been online with that machine for 2 years...
Around about the time i eventually discovered how to just re-install Windows(with no bootable media or recovery partitions etc) some 4 months later i also stumbled across Linux and the rest as they say....is history.
I have not only learned how to keep our own children & computers reasonably safe & secure online but i now help many of the local families and small businesses with their own computer/network problems....especially all the confused parents who usually find their way to me once themselves or their own kids have finally killed their machines. :-)
Obviously most people use Windows but i generally dont even mention Linux unless asked about it. Theres only a couple of people that have moved to using Linux as a direct result of my using it in the last 3-4 years.....kids asides. They just followed suit with me i think. I encourage them all keep Windows dualboots(or vms) at the very least but they mostly prefer Linux....bar my son who likes his W7.
Its just not feasible to physically monitor all of our kids at the same time though and although they have all had their own new machines now for 2Yrs+ every single one can be monitored from wherever i happen to be at the time, if i so choose.
There are many ways to block/filter/monitor whats going on without having to always be there looking over their shoulder, which im quite sure is just not feasible for many other parents too.
The bottom line though is that all the filtering, blocking and indeed depriving of Internet is really not much good whatsoever in the long run....
Education, education, education! Now thats they key. Too many parents are the same way i was some 4 years ago, absolutely terrified of computers & Internet. Dont be. Embrace it because it is going to be a major factor in your childrens lives whether you like it or not.