Paedophilia problematic for online community
Paedophilia and child pornography has been problematic amongst the online and offline global village for centuries. It is only recently that preventative strategies and measures have been implemented to safe guard children whilst using the Internet. Governments, authorities, ISPs, software companies and parents abroad are working together to stop dangerous predators from luring children into a potentially abusive environment.
The Internet?s initial introduction failed to foresee any danger it may cause younger users. It lacked censorship thus allowing the dissemination of unsolicited content without any warning or desensitisation. Children with the ability to move and click a mouse could unknowingly receive offensive content by typing in their favourite movie star or cartoon character. Measures have since been enforced by authorities and parents to cease harmful content but have not adequately addressed the problem of chatrooms, MMS (multimedia message service) and IMS (Instant message services).
Children are susceptible to exploitation from anyone and will never be completely safe. It is hoped by providing helpful information aimed at parents and children will help educate and advise how to deal with potentially harmful situations. There is a mass of information available aggregately stating the best way to prevent children from being targeted by paedophiles is to; not divulge any personal information, supervise the duration of their usage, discuss anything about the Internet with adults and peers, not to meet anyone encountered on the internet unless in a group of friends or with an adult, and do not send photos if requested to pose in a certain position. Frequently, large ISPs, search engines, and companies will have a links to further relevant information.
Research has revealed attacks will frequently only occur after a paedophile has developed a long-term online association with the child. A subsequent meeting will be set-up with the child whom believes that they will be meeting friend of a mutual age. Innocently, children will arrive at the meeting place and are instantaneously subjectable to abuse. This common scenario is reason for the establishment of strategies to defend children from attack.
As previously reported here at N4N, ISP MSN is contributing to online child protection by dissolving their chatroom service in 28 countries. It is part of their £1 million advertising campaign to aid in the awareness of the online predators. They are attempting to ?clean-up? their site by adopting the strategy of exclusivity, only allowing subscriber chat. Microsoft has also discussed the employment of a virtual panic button
Not everyone agrees with MSN strategies, feeling that it may drive paedophiles to create new methods to contact children. UK?s largest ISP, Freeserve strongly believes MSN is driving the danger to non-moderated chat rooms. A spokeswoman for the company believed, “Were very surprised MSN has made this move and are disappointed that they have decided to take this course of action. We know about the potential dangers of chatrooms and thats why we believe all responsible portals should invest in them.?
The National Children?s Homes have welcomed the decision, “Here we have the world?s leading Internet service acknowledging that open free un-moderated chat cannot be made completely safe for consumers and children.?
Related posts: