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Site for parents' sore eyes

Centre advises how to keep kids safe online

By: Bruce Owen

9/02/2010 1:00 AM | Comments: 9

Parents should be aware of their chil­dren’s online activities, a group warns.

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Parents should be aware of their chil­dren’s online activities, a group warns. (JACK DEMPSEY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES)

Susan sits in front of the computer when she gets home from school.

A couple of minutes to gulp down dinner and she's back in front of screen until bed.

Beside her is her cellphone, which beeps constantly.

Her fingers move expertly from phone keypad to computer keyboard as she texts, messages and emails her friends, who are sitting with their phones in front of computers in their own homes. They're all also bouncing from website to website, downloading music or movies, and playing games, usually all at the same time.

And mom and dad in Susan's home have no clue what she's really up to; only that she's quiet and sometimes bursts out laughing when she actually uses the cellphone for what Alexander Graham Bell intended.

Susan is fictitious. But she could be any teenage kid, girl or boy. Her parents could be any mom and dad.

And that's the problem, the Winnipeg-based Canadian Centre For Child Protection said Monday.

Centre executive director Lianna McDonald said too many parents don't know what their child is doing when they're online at home, who they're sharing information with, and the potential harm from an Internet predator. The centre launched a new website The Door That's Not Locked (www.thedoorthatsnotlocked.ca) Monday that offers parents the advice and tools they need to keep their children safe from being exploited.

"It's set up in such a way that they can find age-appropriate information and find out what their kids are doing, what the risks are, and how to keep them safer," McDonald said. "What a five-year-old, beginning and using the Internet, needs to know, and what 16-year-old is doing, are quite different things."

The launch of the website, held at an event with Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, coincides with Safer Internet Day 2010 on Feb. 9.

"Through our advisory groups we're learning that up to 40 per cent of Grade 4 students are coming across inappropriate pictures and material," McDonald said. "Really, this underscores the need that parents need to step up."

The website includes tips for parents on how to speak to their kids about the Internet use and advice on parental controls to limit computer use and filter offensive websites.

"Kids have multiple email accounts," McDonald said. "They have passwords that their parents don't have access to. This is a seamless world for children. Whether it's mobile technologies, whether it's sitting down at a computer, we need to look at the ways that we're educating children that transcend those different spaces.

"As children as they grow and mature into adulthood, they have to learn the skill sets and strategies to manage so they can make healthy decisions and protect themselves better."

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

Teen Internet use increasing

73 per cent of wired American teens now use social networking websites (Facebook, MySpace, Nexopia, Bebo, Microsoft Messenger), a significant increase from previous surveys. Just over half of online teens (55 per cent) used social networking sites in November 2006 and 65 per cent did so in February 2008.

Teens ages 12-17 do not use Twitter in large numbers, though high-school-aged girls show the greatest enthusiasm for it.

As social networking among teens increases, so does wireless connectivity. Blogging has decreased in popularity among teens and young adults.

Cellphone ownership is nearly ubiquitous among teens and young adults, and much of the growth in teen cellphone ownership has been driven by the youngest teens.

Three-quarters of teens and 93 per cent of adults ages 18-29 now have a cellphone.

In the past five years, cellphone ownership has become mainstream among even the youngest teens. Fully 58 per cent of 12-year-olds now own a cellphone, up from just 18 per cent as recently as 2004.

93 per cent of teens ages 12-17 go online, as do 93 per cent of young adults ages 18-29. Three-quarters (74 per cent) of all adults ages 18 and older go online.

Over the past 10 years, teens and young adults have been consistently the two groups most likely to go online, even as the Internet population has grown and even with documented larger increases in certain age cohorts (e.g. adults 65 and older).

62 per cent of online teens get news about current events and politics online.

48 per cent of wired teens have bought things online such as books, clothing or music, up from 31 per cent who had done so in 2000.

31 per cent of online teens get health, dieting or physical fitness information from the Internet. And 17 per cent of online teens report they use the Internet to gather information about health topics that are hard to discuss with others, such as drug use and sexual health topics.

-- Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 9, 2010 A6

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9 Commentscomment icon

I was raised with 1/2 hour of t.v. a night. I played outside, using my IMAGINATION. Once older, I had chores to keep me busy after school, followed by dinner, homework, and in bed at a reasonable hour. My kids get 1/2 of computer/t.v./video games a day... that's it. They read books, they play with toys and imagination and...wait for it...they talk to their parents!! I refuse to purchase a cell phone for my child. There is ALWAYS a phone wherever they are - school, work, friend's, etc. The internet in our house has some very savvy firewalls, and it's in the family room, where I can see the screen at all times.

I am a parent - not a friend. It's my job to teach them to be responsible, accountable, honest, and reliable. Are my kids perfect? Am I the perfect parent? Heck no!! But when rules are broken and lines are crossed, there are consequences... and when you only get 1/2 hour of tv or internet... it really sucks when you lose that privilege!! Are there times when my teens freak out, and call me names? Yup. They don't have to like me to respect me.

That being said, I understand the need for sites like these. There are lots of 'latchkey' kids out there, and plenty of computer illiterate parents - who haven't the slightest clue how an innocent google search for science class (My oldest was doing a research paper on breast cancer - firewall was so bombarded it triggered a system shut down!) can land a kid in a horror show of porn 'pop ups'. Get educated!

......and how many home internet hookups are on an "unlimited plan", allowing kids to be on the computer for an "unlimited" amount of time, and for which parents are paying for?

Part two-In the space of ten years the face of computers and the internet has changed drastically. I didn't even know what the internet was until I was ten years old. Now, five year olds go online, sometimes without their parents around. I'm not saying all of the internet is bad, but that it needs to be viewed carefully, and that mostly, sites for kids are junk anyways and take away from healthy playtime and reading. I am appalled at the number of horrible kids' shows out there. Perhaps I am an unusual person, but I didn't watch much tv as a kid, and don't watch much now either. I played outside, built incredible block structures, road my bike for hours, read thousands of books (not even joking at all...I own more than a thousand and went to the library every week at least once), played the piano, sang, jumped rope...

I think that the loss of tried-and-true playtime is the main reason children are having so many problems today. So get kids away from the technology and screens, it's bad!

I am 19 and thus have an interesting picture as to young people and the internet. I think that in general, kids are getting too programmed at too young an age and bi-passing securities set up online. Facebook is supposed to be for 13 and above, but I have friends from church who are ten and eleven on facebook. And you know what? All I see is them into silly applications and such, not even doing the thing that it was set up for originally, communicating with people you know in REAL LIFE! I did not find the report that 93% of people my age have cell phones shocking, however, I am in the 7%. So far, I have not really found it necessary to have a cellphone. My family got internet when I was 15, and I think that by then I was responsible enough to do things properly (admittedly, I did have my own email account at 13, but mainly used it to communicate with my grandparents and an out-of-country friend). I think that parents should put more restrictions on how much time their children can spend on the internet, and if they're broken, then the computer leaves the kid's room etc. I don't think anyone younger than 16 should have internet in their room, and that might even be too young. And parents should talk to kids about what's safe and what's not early on, and keep young children off computers altogether as it just isn't healthy for a six year old to be online. And trust me, some six and seven year olds chat online with their friends.

well anybody can be anyone who you want them to be .just because u don't see them when chatting to you .the person acutally lies especially if she or he is a complete stranger .if these young girls chatting to god only knows would seen these people face to face .there would not be any chating taking place.I was once chating to a person who I thought was a good person ,not so, until I met this person face to face,the voice behind the audio didn't match this person this person was speachless and ugly no face no morals, what so ever SO BE WARE OF YOUR CHILDREN'S CHATTING ON LINE .IF THEY ARE COMPLETE STRANGERS !

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Susan, you are probably in the majority on this one, in a situation where a lot of alternate activities are cost-prohibitive. I and a lot of people will agree with you there. But sport and organized activity(therefore $$$)are not the only alternatives. There are quite a few free or cheap programs available. The Leisure guide is a good place to start. But if we get creative I am sure we can come up with some great cheap or free alternatives. I am not a parent. Hopefully one day. But I am active in my community and know my neighbours. I am pleased to see a lot of the kids involved in activities that cost their parents so little. I would be interested to know if there are other publications like the Leisure guide that have good activities for little or no money. I would bet there are many websites out there that have some great ideas. Heck. That would be a great activity eh? Sit down with the kids, use the internet to find something else to do hehe. I am going to look around now to see what I can find.

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Nod @ saywhat. Agreement here. I am a child of the seventies. Anyone else born in the seventies or eighties will surely remember a similar battle. Since the internet, computers and cellphones were not around mostly (shocking, eh kids?) TV and play were our main entertainment. Our parents were challenged to be involved in what we watched and with whom we played. But it was easier then. With only a couple of tv's in the house it was easier to monitor. But as the article stated, most teens have a "secret" life online away from that which is known by the parents. THIS is where the worst damage can happen. Please parents, become more active. Talk to your kids about their internet use. Sit with them while they surf. There is nothing wrong with using the computer. It is a great educational and entertainment tool. Excessive use of ANYTHING can be bad. But don't discourage it's moderate use, I say.

Above all, PLEASE learn to use the computer yourselves. Learn to use the internet. Become experienced with the programs and sites your kids use. Learn the lingo and the jargon. If you don't then your kids can do anything online and you won't even know. Detectives are trained to know what criminals are thinking, how they operate, what to look for, the tools of the trade. THIS is what allows them to catch criminals. Your kids are not criminals. But without knowledge of their pastimes you cannot hope to effectively guide them.

Easier said than done...most recreational activities, even through school, require money up front, which can be difficult for families with a tight budget and many kids. Yes, there are free programs out there, but it seems that families have to be low-income. If my family was rich, all my kids would be involved in at least two activities each, but we're stuck in the middle where we can't afford the fees, but we don't qualify to get anything free...unless someone out there knows otherwise? We do what we can with what we have and are constantly trying to minimize the kids' time in front of the screen.

Parents need to wake up and start taking responsibility for their children.

Put them into sport, give them something creative to do. Engage your child in something besides being babysat by their "friends" online, or on text messages. Children learn from what they see, so does that mean mom and dad sit infront of the tv night after night, or the computer screen in their fantasy world of games or chatting, or drinking.

Sitting in front a computer screen is not being parented. Lack of disregard for what contributing member of society your child will be is why our society is in the state its in.

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