Threats on the Web

The Internet is a global medium which combines the speed and availability of information. However, this does not change the fact that it also the risks for the youngest Internet users, which takes everywhere similar forms.

What do parents think about that

As is clear from the researches done by PC Web Control, children begin their adventure with the Internet relatively early. As many as 16% of parents said their child had contact with the Internet at the age of 4 years or less. Children usually use the Internet at home and at school. One in five parents also admits that their child uses the Internet with friends. Are the parents aware of the risks posed by reckless use of the Internet by children? The results show that the vast majority of parents, as a dangerous first of all evaluate these forms of online activities that involve sharing their children personal information, like home adress or phone number. Slightly fewer parents considered dangerous encounters with the persons that their childrens have met over the internet. Providing your e-mail the person learned over the internet and place your photos on the internet is regarded as dangerous by more than a half of all respondents. At the same time, a relatively large group of parents is not able to assess what online activities of Internet users may pose a threat.

What is most concerning

It is widely recognized that the greatest threat to the children who use the Internet constitutes sexual abuse. In particular, the terms of such phenomena as presenting children pornographic material, child pornography, grooming children via the Internet, prostitution or virtual sex. In addition to children exposed to pornographic material are also in contact with other dangerous content, as brutal violence, racism or xenophobia. However, probably including what may be the most vulnerable of our children while surfing the internet is cyberbullying. Basic forms of this phenomenon is harassing, threatening, blackmailing using the Internet, publication or distribution of ridiculing, embarrassing information, such as pictures or videos, and spoofing on the Internet at someone against his will.

What can we do

The question is what can we actually do against a multitude of risks faced by our children while browsing the web? Firstly, we should talk to our child and explain, what he or she can do while being online and what should be avoided. Of course you need to do it in such a way that will not just encourage the young person to search for unsuitable materials. The next step may be to install a child activity monitoring programs, that will tell us what the young person is doing while surfing on the internet. It can also monitor any other activities that are done on the computer. Softwares like offer not a variety of options, ranging from monitoring your online activity by limiting the time how long you can use the computer. In this way we can be sure that your child will not enter suspicious websites or download inappropriate material.