Caution! Kids Online

With the ever increasing
number of children logging on to
the web, software like the
Onlinefamily from Norton comes
in handy to keep a vigil on their
online activities.

In the real world, parents often
drill words of caution into the
minds of their young children,
such as “don’t talk to strangers”
and “don’t go there; it’s not safe”.
But surprisingly, parents are not so
foresighted when it comes to the
cyber world, as they allow their
children unrestricted access to the
Web. Already, we are witnessing an
increase in cyber crime, and what’s
alarming is the rise in the number
of children being victimized on the
Web.
It goes without saying that young
children today are far more tech
savvy then previous generations
were at the same age. And by
looking at Internet penetration
figures, the growth in recent years
speaks for itself. While parents
today are concerned about the
amount of time their children
spend on the Internet, they do not
seem to be concerned about what
their children are doing when
they’re online.
A recent survey conducted by
Norton in over 14 countries
underlines some startling facts.
According to the survey, over 77
percent of children in India have
had a negative online experience.
While the majority of parents
believe that their children spend
time playing games or doing school
work, an astonishing 68 percent of
children download music and video
games online. This ever-increasing
online presence exposes the
children to threats such as identity
theft, cyber bullying, stalking by
pedophiles, etc.
Over the years, we have witnessed
several instances where adults
posing as teenagers have
befriended young children and
have coerced them into
inappropriate activities or even
duped them into divulging sensitive
financial details of their families.
This is particularly dangerous
since, according to the Norton
Online Family Report 2010,
children feel that their actions
online will go unnoticed and
cannot be traced back to them.
The survey further reveals that not
many of them are aware that few
things are ever permanently
deleted and that anything they say
or do can come back to haunt
them later. Just as there are set
rules in physical environments, you
need to set rules for the cyber
world as well.
And with this aim in mind, Norton
has responded with a free Web
monitoring tool called
onlinefamily.norton.com . This
service monitors Web surfing as
well as instant message
conversations and interactions on
social networking sites. It allows
you to create up to ten accounts
and once activated, you will be
able to see a list of all the websites
visited by the user of each
account. If you don’t like a
particular site, you can easily block
it and it even allows you to
customize settings for each child’s
account depending on his or her
age. It also tracks words, terms
and phrases your kids search for
online, which gives you an idea
about their online interests.
Most importantly, it allows you to
monitor their activities on social
networking sites as well as online
forums. You can easily monitor
what they chat about and with
whom. OnlineFamily also includes
the option to allow users to chat
only with people you explicitly
approve of. As far as social
networking sites are concerned, it
gives you an overview of your
child’s profiles and how they
represent themselves (name, age,
and profile picture). If you are
worried about children spending a
lot of time online, you can easily
restrict that here by setting time
limits for usage. Once the set limit
has been crossed, it will
automatically cause the system to
shut down. You can continue to
monitor their online activities
when you are away as you will
receive email alerts in case your
child ignores a warning or tries to
visit a blocked web site.
This may seem like a spying tool,
but unlike other monitoring sites,
it’s not hidden and the children
are aware of it, making it very
transparent. Parents will have to
communicate openly about safe
Internet practices to ensure that
children don’t feel like they aren’t
trusted or their privacy isn’t being
respected.