As featured on Today Tonight 15th April 2010.
Children need to be supervised.
Erin Cash worked for Queensland police's Paedophile Taskforce ARGOS, disguised as a 12-year-old girl in online chat rooms. She was a lure for predators on the prowl for children.
"There are men and women out there that spend 16 hours a day or more sitting in front of a computer solely preying on our children," Erin said.
Erin says if you don't know how to use a computer, or what your child is up to, you can assume they are being groomed to be offended against - on facebook, on MySpace, even gaming websites.
"If you leave your child unsupervised, it would be the equivalent of allowing a stranger to come into your home and look after your child," Erin said.
Former detective, Brett Lee around the country conducting internet safety seminars. Brett believes education is the key to safety, informing children and parents on the do's and don'ts when surfing the net.
"There are people looking for your information, there are people that want to talk to you, to contact you, but if you don't respond to them, you don't give them information, they can't touch you," he said.
"These guys are almost being arrested on a daily basis in Australia."
Both Erin and Brett say parents should buy an internet content filter and firewall - software to block certain websites and chat rooms which may have pornographic or violent material.
But even then, it's never a substitute for looking over your child's shoulder.
Click here to view the full article
Want to know more about how to protect your children?
Like to know more covert stories and catch a glimpse of the workings of a paedophile?
Would you or your children’s school be interested in a Kid’s Self Defence class?
Email erin@sweatdiva.com.au.
2 comments:
The bottom line is that if parents REALLY want to keep their kids safe online, they need to know what said kids are doing on the computer, and what is happening in their online lives. Blocks and filters are easy to get around, and talking alone will get you nowhere… (if you think your kids are going to tell you, honestly, everything they are doing online – you are a fool). Education is a great thing, and very necessary, but how can you consider yourself educated if you don’t know the simplest information – like what your kids are really doing. If you have monitoring software, like our PC Pandora (http://www.pcpandora.com), you will know everything they do and will be able to talk to them about it. If you aren’t monitoring and don’t know what they are really doing, how can you be sure they are safe? It’s not an issue of privacy (I have no idea where and when kids were granted endless privacy because they exist – in my day privacy was earned through trust and an established good behavior record), nor is it an issue of trust – it’s called being a 21st century parent. If you don’t know what your kids are doing online, you aren’t doing your job as a parent. If you aren’t monitoring what your kids do online and watch them, someone else will…
Interesting, I know that software is only as clever as the parent using it...
Great marketing ploy Pandora!
This is my recommendation:
- Keep your kids PC in a communal area
- Have boundaries on facebook, yahoo and other social networking sites
- Have boundaries on mobile phone use.
Focus on building self confidence and self awareness in children!!!
Keep your eye out for Sweat Depot teenies, tweens, teens and Mum and daughter self defence programs.
www.sweatdepot.com.au
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