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Internet Safety Day - New Site Combats Net Pedophiles
Melbourne, Australia -- Internet safety expert, Simon Johnson has launched
an invaluable resource to help parents protect their children from pedophiles, internet porn and other threats on the Internet. The launch coincides with Safer Internet Day, an event funded under the European Commission's Safer Internet programme, which takes place this Friday, February 6, 2004. Johnson's website, http://www.keepyourchildrensafe.com, is free for parents and provides safety check-lists, free software and forums for parents to discuss safety tips with other parents. Johnson created the website in response to an urgent need to help parents combat the growing threats to children on the Internet. A study by the US Internet Crimes Taskforce (USICT) reports that in the past year: * 1 in 5 children (5.7 million children) received unwanted sexual solicitations; * 20% (1-1.5 million children) were "very or extremely upset" about receiving such solicitations; * 25% (5.4 - 6.4 million children) received "unwanted exposure to pictorial images of naked people or of people having sex"; * 71% of "unwanted exposures" occurred while the children were searching or surfing the Internet; and * 67% of the unwanted exposures happened at home. According to research by Internet security company, Symantec, in 2003, 80% of children between the ages 7 and 18 in the USA received inappropriate spam on a daily basis. Bernadette McMenamin, founder of Child Wise http://www.childwise.net which combats child sex abuse said: "The Internet has opened up an exciting new world for our children. Unfortunately it has also brought risks and dangers. These risks include being exposed to illegal and inappropriate material or paedophiles seeking access to children through chat rooms. The Internet can bring potentially bring paedophiles into our homes and even into our children's bedrooms if we are not very careful." "With most schools requiring children to use the Internet in their learning, parents can't just switch the Internet off," said Simon Johnson. "Yet, many parents may not know what their children are doing on the Internet, what risks they're exposed to, and what they can do about it." "I created http://www.keepyourchildrensafe.com as a free resource parents can use to protect their children when they use the Internet. And everything is written in plain English, so parents don't have to know about computers or the Internet to understand what to do." McMenamin added "keepyourchildrensafe.com provides an easy to follow, practical and understandable guide for families to make their own and their children's Internet use a safer experience. As an Internet safety expert Simon Johnson provides and invaluable and authoritative perspective which we can all benefit from." Johnson's top 10 tips for parents to ensure a safe Internet experience for their children are as follows: 1. Have an open discussion with your children about what dangers exist, why they should avoid them, and what they can do to avoid them. 2. Explain to your children that they won't get into trouble if they tell you about something that happened on the Internet. This could be something they saw which was offensive, or a person that said something which upset them. 3. Install content filtering, antivirus, firewall and malware detection software on your computer. Installing just one is like locking the back door of your house, but leaving the front door and your windows wide open. 4. Make sure your computer automatically downloads the latest updates to your software as often as possible. This will fix security flaws in your computer and help protect you against the latest viruses and spam. 5. Show your children the difference between advertising and information. Explain to them that everything they read on the Internet isn't necessarily true. 6. Put your computer in a publicly accessible area such as a lounge room. The computer should not be in your child's bedroom. 7. Explain to your children the importance of not providing their e-mail address or other personal information (name, address, phone number, suburb, school) to anyone, not even a web site. 8. Do not open file attachments or e-mail messages from people you don't know. 9. Read the licensing agreements before downloading free software from the Internet. It may contain 'spyware' which sends your personal information (including your passwords) to third-parties. 10. Remove file-sharing programs from your child's computer. Not only is downloading copyright music illegal, but many popular file-sharing programs contain spyware or adware. Such software may secretly record their Internet browsing habits and target them with advertising. Parents can visit http://www.keepyourchildrensafe.com for more information about how to implement the top 10 tips. Information on Safer Internet Day is available from the European Commission' s Safer Internet programme at http://www.safer-internet.net. |
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