online predators

I was poking around cnn.com and I found a great article on steps parents should take in order to help protect their children from online predators and since I'm writing my paper on this topic, I decided to read through it. The article gives tips such as making sure the computer is in a high traffic area of the house and monitoring the child's use. Parents need to be more aware of what their children are doing when online and setting guidelines explaining what the computer and internet should be used for. This article could really help parents realize how volunerable their children are to online predators and just how involved they need to be in order to keep their children from becoming victims of these predators.

In a related article, a federal judge in Philidelphia ruled against a 1998 U.S. law that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material. I completely agree with the ruling. There are many tools out there for parents to monitor and filter the content their children are viewing on the internet and it's not the commerical Web site operators' responsibility to censor the sites content. All the web sites with adult content have a warning advising the viewer that they are about to see material that may not be appropriate for children under 18 and a parent can simply put a block on this site by clicking a button. The bottom line really is that parents today have to be aware of the potential dangers of the internet and to teach their children how to be cautious and aware when browsing the web.