Concerns
Exposure to Inappropriate Material
- Private BBSs -watch for unusual phone or credit card charges;
most of these aren't free and most do what they can to discourage minors (to avoid
prosecution).
- Usenet Newsgroups -the alt.- groups that are dedicated to sexual
content make up less than 1.5% of 12,000 newsgroups (Electronic Schools
9/95). Many service providers filter newsgroups or software can be purchased
to do this.
- Commercial Web sites - magazines like Playboy and Penthouse
have jumped on the bandwagon like everyone else. Also tasteless modeling
agency sites and porn movie sites do exist. Content is subject to national
obscenity laws; blocking software can prevent access to most of these sites.
The Electronic Schools study estimates .08% of all WWW sites contain
pornography.
Physical Molestation
Children need to understand and follow reasonable precautions when communicating
with others on BBSs or "chat" sites. The other participants may
not be who they claim to be. Personal or family information should not be
shared online. Face-to-face meetings should be with parental approval or
supervision only. (see "My Rules for Online Safety" in Child
Safety on the Information Highway.
Harassment
Harassing, demeaning, or belligerent e-mail or bulletin board messages (sometimes
called "Flames") are not tolerated by the Internet community.
Make sure your children understand that harassment is unacceptable. Incidents
should be brought to your attention and reported to the administrator of
the network or bulletin board.
- from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's brochure,
Child Safety on the Information Highway. Click here to
go to the full document.
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