I receive each day, amongst my assortment of emails, notification of the day’s headlines in the SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) as well as news from the Technology Weekly section of that newspaper. I don’t buy the paper, I read it online as I can pick and choose what I wish to read, and I don’t have heaps of paper to dispose of or recycle.
Today’s main story in the Technology Weekly focuses on the dangers online for children and teens, and the efforts of the Australian Federal Government to raise awareness, assist families, and reduce the risks for children associated with surfing the Internet.
I won’t say “I told you so” … ooops I just did J Okay, so I did try to use words many times over the last 4 years or so to alert people to what I saw as being a huge fallout about to happen with the advent of the amazing growth of the Internet. However, my words mainly fell on deaf ears.
My book was one way that I could try my hardest to get a message across, not just about the availability of almost anything online for adults, but the very real dangers also available to children. It’s hard enough for adults to be aware of what roads they may be taking online, almost impossible for children who are forever trusting. Not many people bought the book either L
The Australian Federal Government is reported to be spending over $100M on a package aimed at families. $93M of that amount will be to fund a free software program that will filter computer usage by minors once it is installed and regulated by parents. The software is designed to deny access by children to known paedophile websites and other pages containing explicit material. It will also have the options whereby content of chat can be monitored with bans on personal information being given out such as real names, addresses and phone numbers.
The software is already available from www.iia.net.au, the website of the Internet Industry Association, but it has to be purchased. The Federal Government will offer the software, either downloaded from a central website or ISP sites, or by CD-ROM, free of charge. It will reportedly be available next year. Reports are that the software is the most advanced in the world to date.
However, is this the answer? How far can the Government go to protect children and families? Isn’t it time families learned how to look out for themselves as they once did without having to be told to do it? Where did all the adults go who used to look out for their families, who took great pride in doing so, and abhorred the interference of Governments and other bodies in their affairs? They grew into grandparents who now watch with astonishment as the children they raised allow others to run their lives, and their children’s lives. Pride in doing it yourself for your family went out the door with family values; they don’t seem to exist in many homes anymore, or am I just being one-eyed here?
My granddaughter is 11 years old, almost 12. Since going into the senior class in what we call Primary School, she has become interested in the Internet and chat, and in boys. I watch my daughter with her, and while I am very proud of the fact she sits beside her daughter while she is online with her friends, I feel this distinct uneasiness creeping into my mind. All of the chat friends my granddaughter has are from her school, with the exception of perhaps two that go to different schools now. I fail to see the point why she needs to be online every night, even if it is for a restricted time, chatting to a large group of ‘friends’ she sees mostly 5 days a week at school. I was addicted to chat, I see the signs, and yet my addiction was with people I didn’t see for months at a time, some I never met for real.
I express my concerns to my daughter and she laughs it off. She thinks it is ‘cute’ and, as she is close by or sitting there watching most of the time, she sees no danger. I class my granddaughter as being addicted without either of them realising it. She is an only child and yet until this year, her life was filled with a multitude of other things. She still spends a fair amount of time doing ‘other things’, but the Internet is there every day. When she visits friends for sleepovers, they mostly spend part of that time online.
I sent my daughter the article I read in the SMH tonight via email and I hope that she will read it and take note. It tells a few stories of some not so nice things that have happened to children the age of my granddaughter. I guess my daughter gets a bit tired of my harping about the Internet, considering how many hours every week I used to spend on there myself, and how it took over my life. But that is the very reason why I keep on to her about it, because I have been there and I know how it can become the most important thing in a person’s day.
I applaud the Australian Government for setting up websites where parents and children can read about dangers on the Internet, where they can find help and people to talk to online. However, it’s all a bit late. The gate opened quite a while ago and the horse has bolted. There is no containing the rate of growth of the Internet, it is a powerful influence in most of our lives now and will continue to be so. The pure fact of it’s anonymity, the fact that it’s interactive, will make it grow from strength to strength from now until forever or until they find a replacement for it. The amount of knowledge one can find on the Internet is awe-inspiring. No matter what you may wish to find an answer for, you will find a multitude of answers on the Internet. The hard part is choosing which answer you wish to believe or put your faith in.
That’s the good side of the Internet. The bad side you can read about every day by just surfing the Internet and reading the many articles that are there from many different sources. However, how many parents have the time to spend reading articles online? How many of them even know how to find these articles? I am constantly astounded at the questions I am asked in AllExperts. The people asking the questions could find the answers so easily just by using a search engine, and yet they don’t know how. I’m not really that surprised as I was one of those people once myself until I learned how to find answers to my questions.
Instead of sending out brochures about how wonderful our local politicians are, I would prefer to think that my taxes that probably pay for those brochures, were spent in another way. If the Government is fair dinkum about this Internet danger campaign they are on, then print up some information brochures that go out to each and every home in Australia with hard-hitting true to life facts. Copies should be sent to every school in Australia and distributed to every child and teacher. What the Government seems to forget or hasn’t bothered to research, is that many Australian parents have no idea at all about the Internet or even how to use a computer. They buy computers for their kids because they know they need them for their schoolwork, and they use them as child minders that may cost a few thousand at the outset, but from then on the childcare is free. Wake up Mr Howard and company – you need to reach the ordinary families, not via the Internet, but via the old fashioned mailboxes on the front fence. Not every family can afford a computer either, with many kids making do using those of friends or family or the libraries or schools.
So on I go, waving a big stick, jumping up and down; probably talking to thin air. But, it helps to get it off my chest in the only way I really can, with the written word.
Thank you for reading my thoughts.
Vena
