Current Events
Monsters in the Machine
by VEENA VENUGOPAL
When she was three, Avvalprit Kaur used to sit on her father's lap while he surfed the Internet.
By the time her next birthday rang in, she was online herself-playing games on Barbie and Walt Disney websites. She started blogging at 9, and now at 12 she's also on Twitter and has a Facebook account.
Her father, Simarprit Singh, has talked to her about the dangers of the Internet but does not feel that limiting access is the key to keeping her safe from lurkers and criminals online.
"She asked me for a Facebook account and I refused. Later I learnt that she had gotten a friend to help and opened an account. I talked to her about it, but promised to keep it live till she turns 14 and is legally allowed to have an account," he says.
Avvalprit intuitively demonstrates the dexterity required of the online medium. On her blog she details her father's bookshelf and the cars she loves. On Twitter she moans about the last class in school which seemed "like a marathon". It is inevitable that she meets all kinds of people online.
"Twitter users can be abusive at times. But I scan her page and ask her to unfollow anyone who uses the F-word or talks badly in any way. But you can't prevent everything," Simarprit concedes. Though he has activated an auto-forward for her email account, whereby he gets a copy of all the emails she receives, he has not really checked it.
Modern-day parents, gripped with the idea of their child's need for privacy, tend to get lax about monitoring what the children do online. But several dangers lurk. So much so that 62% of children worldwide have had a negative online experience.
"Parents do worry about predators, but they seem to be overlooking more common threats, such as cyberbullying. And more than half of all families are putting themselves at risk through children's unchecked downloading behaviour," says Marian Merritt, Norton's Internet safety advocate.
Most children get online to either play games or for help with their homework. And since they tend to surf more freely-without restricting themselves to familiar websites-they put themselves at a much higher risk of being victims of cybercrime.
"A 13-year-old boy isn't going to tell you if he's searched for and seen a naked woman. But he may get upset if he innocently comes across indecent images or downloads a virus. It's crucial that children know their parents will listen to them and partner with them to set things right. If they think they'll be blamed or punished, they'll simply push things underground," Merritt says.
Companies whose target audience is children also play safe when they connect with them on the Internet. However, a foolproof security system is yet to emerge.
"If we look at our consumers, our target audience for the business is kids till the age of 14. Trust and safety is a big thing. We have a 24x7 moderation team that monitors every user that logs on to the website. There is parental consent required for every user that signs up for the website (parents have to confirm by email). If we want to stay in the space of kids' entertainment, these are the necessary costs that we have to bear," says Benjamin Grubbs, regional director, Turner Entertainment Interactive Media, otherwise known as the folks who run Cartoon Network.
While most parents, including Simarjit Singh, have spoken to their children about Internet safety, they do not really enforce its implementation.
The Norton survey says that 68% of parents in computerized households in India, for example, have laid down some house rules to regulate what their children do on the Internet. However, only 34% have set parental controls on the computer. While you may implicitly trust what your child tells you, a little snooping around their browsing history is mandatory. Passionate and affronted speeches about the need for their privacy notwithstanding.
[Extracts from article in the Wall Street Journal.]
June 26, 2010