The Internet Is No Place For Kids

It’s a wild place, the internet, a jungle full of predators, prey, parasites, and curiosities. The internet is no place for kids, preteens as well as teens. They don’t need it to do their homework. That’s what libraries, pencils, books and spiral binders are for. I remember a stretch of time when computer companies were marketing their products with kids whining, “but mom, I need it to do my homework”. No, you don’t.

That isn’t to say that kids shouldn’t be exposed to all the positive things that the internet has to offer. Kids need a full education, and that includes computers and the internet. But parents have to be the teachers, and like any kind of teaching, to properly educate them they need to know more about the subject than their kids do. Every moment that a child is on the internet, a parent (not sibling or friend) has to be looking over their shoulder. That monitoring is vital and net nanny software, or promises from them to be good aren’t acceptable substitutes.

It’s not a matter of trust, any more than keeping an eye on them in public is. A child should no sooner be allowed to walk alone through gang territory a night, then to use the internet unsupervised. Law enforcement sexual offender units carry on stings in which an officer corresponds over the internet with a sexual predator who thinks he is in contact with a minor. It’s not uncommon for these predators to have sexual conversations with kids or even entice kids to meet them.

The power and anonymity of the internet is a magnet for evil. It’s like a huge magic act. Nothing is quite what it seems. For instance, I say I am a man named Denigris. How do you know that’s true? Because I say so? I could be a 14 year old girl named Jamie or a 70 year old Transgender named Bruce. The truth is that I am a 5′11″, 285 pound, 45 year old somewhat balding, but terribly handsome caucasian man. And Denigris is a nom de plum. a reasonable precaution on the internet. But you get my point.

We do our children a disservice by exposing them to the internet unsupervised. Porn, scam artists, organized crime, predators, disinformation, cults - they are all out there at the click of a mouse, and often attack our computers even without the click. Did you know for instance, armed with your IP address, a person can remotely determine with varying accuracy, what kind of computer you have, what operating system and version you are using, what type of CPU your computer likely has, and whether or not a firewall is present and likely to be affecting the results? This is done with a common - and freely available - network administration tool used to test security. There are simple steps you can take to make this snooping much more difficult, and I’ll go into that in the future. But really, how many kids, even computer savvy ones, are aware of this? And of those that are aware, how many of them know what to do to protect themselves?

Have you ever noticed that some internet ads are targeted to your geographical area, often very close to you? That’s not because the ad server is close by; it could be in Bangladesh. It’s because they know where the connection point between your house and your internet service provider is. In order for the internet to work, that information has to be available. In most cases, especially with DSL connections, it is close by as the crow flies.

Which brings me back to the point. If this all scares you, it should. As adults, we understand the dangers and the importance of protecting ourselves. Our children, regardless of how intelligent or self reliant they are, are not adults and they need, deserve protection. So lets get them disconnected from their walkmans and cell phones, and talking to each other and us. And make sure they receive a well rounded education including essentials like touch typing. Then teach teach them about the internet while you look over their shoulder.

Denigris