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Sunday, April 30, 2006. Posted: 12:34am
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How we can improve internet safety |
No photo
available. |
Grosu Luciana
Staff Writer,
Romania |
Luciana can be reached by filling out a
Contact Us form. |
Children's safety online
is a great problem nowadays as the internet, perhaps the greatest humanity
achievement, breaks very easily any rules and laws mainly because it can
be accessed anywhere by anyone. The internet is actually a whole new sort
of cyber universe that cannot be controlled. Thus, the internet becomes
also a vast hiding-place for criminals, cold-blooded merchants, fans of
blood, violence or pornography, and other malicious persons. It is said
that you can find absolutely anything on the internet, and it’s true: but
children can find it, too. All these harmful sites are only one click
away, and that needs to change.
Solutions do exist, but there is no perfect answer to the question of how
we can completely protect our children on the internet. Blocking programs
and special filters are not 100% sure, as very often these expensive soft
wares fail to prevent children from accessing harmful sites. They under
block adult sites and over block other useful sites. The rating system
does not seem like the, since it’s based on the volunteer agreement of the
site’s owner to rate his site, as well as parents volunteering to install
and use expensive blocking software on their children’s computers.
But is restricting kids` access to the internet the right solution?
Shouldn’t children be free to discover the worldwide web and learn new
things?
I believe the ideal solution will be to a NETpassport for adults
over 18.This NETpassport should be free of cost and should enable
anyone to access any adult site, simply by entering a password when an
internet browser is launched. The sign up process should be easy and
should require little time. Parents will block only the access to this
single site, in order to prevent children from creating a NETpassport and
thus accessing adult sites. Internet cafes should be obliged to put a
poster outside, if they allow access to the page where this NETpassport
can be created.
In order to put all the adult sites in this zone, the websites that
contain harmful content and are not password protected should be declared
illegal, or there should be some sort of other warning system so that
parents know they contain illegal content.
A good start will be to create a program for finding all sites that
require a credit card and isolate them in an "adult zone". The next
step would be to open a special website, where adults could anonymously
post lists of possibly harmful sites, and even be rewarded for this in
some way. They should be encouraged to do this knowing they would get
something in exchange (e.g.: free internet access, games online,
downloading music and movies) and that the sites posted won’t be
destroyed, but listed to prevent children from accessing them. These sites
should then be added to the database of the program.
Another solution would be to offer free virus protection for the
sites that join the "adult zone". This would be yet another incentive for
webmasters to list this site in this adult zone.
Regarding the category of "criminal sites", that present harmful
content condemned by law, I believe their webmasters should be identified
and face criminal charges. I believe there should an "internet spies
service" should be created to aid in this policing of the internet. These
people should work as virtual police, entering forums, chat rooms, getting
in contact with people who actually access these sites, and searching for
information about them. Although it is impossible to identify all of them,
by asking their clients directly and covertly, many sites can be found and
destroyed, or, at least, marked as very dangerous or illegal.
No real change is possible, if these new laws are not adopted by all
the countries and if all these services are not available in all the
languages. If they are, then I truly believe that the internet will become
a much safer place for all who use it, thus freeing children and people of
all ages from using this valuable tool to its full potential. |
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