Although as a parent physical harm to our child is important
to prevent, it is almost equally frightening to watch our
child change into a different person as forces outside our
control or understanding lure him or her. The Internet has
introduced a large body of influences that we would want
to shield our children from, including dangerous or misleading
information, fantasy and role playing, scams and hoaxes,
and sexually explicit material.
Dangerous
or misleading information
Misleading
information can be a relatively small risk compared to others,
but should be one that we discuss with our children. Similar
to some magazines at the checkout counter, online information
can be sensational and misleading. Users of the Internet
should be able to assess the validity of a website that
is visited. Teach your child that a Web page must have certain
qualities before they trust it. It must be accurate in what
it presents about the subject. Is the website one of opinions
or facts? It should be written by an authority in the subject
being covered. The child should learn to check the date
that the page was updated. Overall, your child should be
encouraged to make a judgment about content and not to believe
everything on the web.
Some
websites take advantage of the fact that users do not always
type the right address into the address bar. For example,
the website www.example.info may not be the same
as www.example.gov or www.exampal.info. The
site that is displayed when the wrong address is typed in
may be designed to look like the one expected, but may be
a spoof and be making fun of the site you intended to find
or it may contain content not appropriate for children.
If your child is looking for information about a government
agency, they should always try ".gov" at the end
of the address before they try other endings.
Websites
and other interactive technologies (including chat rooms)
may have dangerous information, such as how to commit suicide
or how to make a bomb. Read more about inappropriate
products that may be obtained online. Although we generally
appreciate support groups and other means of support when
needed, the Internet can provide support that most would
not consider a helpful. Predators can now find likeminded
individuals online and this validates their lusts and endeavors.
Our children may find others who are depressed online, and
together they may encourage each other to take their lives,
hurt other individuals or commit a crime.
Resources
Berkeley
Guide to Evaluating Web SitesThis page... begins
with looking at your search results from a search engine
or other source, follows through by investigating the content
of page, and extends beyond the page to what others may
say about the page or its author(s). Cornell
UniversityFive criteria for evaluating web pages
Fantasy
Role Playing
Fantasy
role-playing on the Internet does not just occur in online
gaming. Many people live by the saying that “On the
Internet nobody knows you are a dog.1”
Anyone can say or do anything when they are in a chat room,
but they tend to forget, or do not know, that they are traceable.
1 Internet dog cartoon by Peter
Steiner
We have discussed at some length how predators assume different
identities in chat rooms in order to lure children, but
children in their early teens have been found to role-play
in chat rooms, assuming different identities as well. While
this may seem as though they are protecting their personal
information and identities it has been found that those
alternate identities will do or behave in inappropriate
ways. See Disinhibition.
The reality confusion aspect is revealed when the child
believes that certain inappropriate behaviors only apply
to the assumed identity and not they themselves. Specifically,
when younger children engage in these types of behaviors
they are at risk for losing the ability to distinguish between
fantasy and reality.2
Online gaming, also known as MMORPGs (massive multiplayer
online role-playing game), may be violent, sexually explicit,
or both. The Wickopedia
site provides an excellent description of MMORPs including
screen shots from different games. While MMORPG’s
are a source of entertainment for many individuals other
individuals find them addictive. Gaming can give a player
a sense of control and empowerment that they do not have
in real life. Fantasy role-playing is especially attractive
for those who are shy, have low self-esteem or a poor self-image.
The game gives them an environment where they do not have
to be themselves; they can create a new superior persona
for however many hours they play. The different gaming qualities
that attract players are accomplishment, relationships,
and escapism. Girls tend to be more attracted to the relationship
aspects, while those that are achievement challenged in
real life are attracted to the achievement aspect in the
game. Escapism would appeal to those who are unhappy in
their current real life situation and find this as the only
way out. 3
There are three contributing factors that drive the players
to continue to play: rewards, peer pressure, and invested
effort.
For the achievement oriented especially, the possibly
of getting to the next level is always right there for
them. When a player first starts playing it is fairly
easy to attain the next level, but it gets progressively
more difficult as the game progresses. This is called
"leveling" and it is the feature that makes
gaming so addictive. It is also important for parents
to note that the easier early levels in some of the games
are also much cleaner with respect to violence and language
than later levels.
The peer-pressure aspect comes from the friends that
game players make online. The anonymous nature of the
friendships tends to lead to greater self-disclosure than
face-to-face friendships. See Disinhibition.
When playing online there is competitiveness between friends
to stay at the same level and not get left behind. In
fact, some players become so involved in the games that
when a player dies in real life, they hold a virtual funeral.
As each player logins in at the designated time their
character shows up at the funeral. The funerals can be
surprisingly touching.
Finally, the amount of invested effort in the game makes
many players reluctant to quit. After investing in hundreds,
if not thousands of hours playing a player’s character
may have achieved significant status in the game and have
acquired valuable assets. To quit playing means that all
of the accomplishments are gone, as though they never
existed. 3 This information came from research done
by Nick
Yee.
How
can you tell if you or someone you know is addicted?
The
basic criteria for addiction apply. Do you spend progressively
more time playing to feel excitement? Is it primarily what
you think about when you are not playing? Have you lied
about how much you play? Are you able to cut back how many
hours you spend playing or quit? Is it an escape? Does it
interfere in your relationships? Does it affect school or
work? 4 NetAddiction
Just
as scams and hoaxes existed before the Internet there are
scams and hoaxes being perpetuated on the Internet. The
Wikipedia
site has a good definition of scams; it "is an attempt
to intentionally mislead a person or persons (known as the
mark) usually with the goal of financial or other gain."1
The other gain may be curiosity at how well the perpetuator
can manipulate others, or to see how far something will
go. Or, it may be part of a denial of service attack directed
at someone, or simply wasting bandwidth by getting people
to pass on useless messages.
A
hoax is an attempt to persuade someone or a group that what
is really false is true.2 Hoaxes typically state
somewhere in the message to send this very important warning
to everyone you know. Credible sources do not use statements
like that. They also use technical sounding language, which
is often nonsense, and attempt to associate themselves with
a legitimate organization.3
Chain
letters generally have three parts to them, the hook, the
threat, and the request. The hook is something to interest
you and keep you reading like a dire warning about your
computer's safety or a child who is in peril. The threat
part is what is going to happen to your computer or the
child. The request part is what you must do to prevent such
an occurrence. The hoax or chain letter originator may be
trying to see what he or she can get others to do, to extract
revenge on someone by making it look as though that person
is responsible for the hoax, or to perpetuate some kind
of pyramid scheme where the recipients send in money.3
For
a considerable list of scams go to The National Fraud Information
Center site Fraud
Tips.4 Remember, if it sounds too good to
be true, it is.
The
luring qualities of a site may appeal to a child's interest
and curiosity. Pornography is easily found and accessed
by any internet user, regardless of their age. Adult websites
often block deep use of their site by requiring a credit
card, however the initial pages are explicit and exciting
to many adolescents. In addition, pornographic images are
often traded through email or seen in chat rooms when individuals
using cams expose themselves.
How
many pornographic Web pages are online? That is difficult
to determine. N2H2, a company that sells business and school
filters and is now Secure Computing, stated in a press release
of September 2003 that they had identified for its database
over 260 million pornographic Web pages, identifying over
28 million pages in July 2003 alone. At that time their
research indicated an 1800% increase in the number of pornographic
sites over a 5-year period. http://www.netaddiction.com/newspr/n2h2_2003.htm
Research
indicates that approximately 25 per cent of children aged
10 -17 years who use the Internet are exposed to explicit
sexual material (Finkelhor et al. 2000). In other words,
out of a average class of 30 middle to high school aged
students, 7 - 8 have been exposed to pornography online.
What
can you do?
1.
Discuss the importance of self-control and making right
choices with your child. Ultimately the responsibility for
guarding their mind is theirs. They will have choices throughout
their lives that will involve temptations that are not productive
and may be damaging versus decisions to resist those temptations.
Pollution of the mind and soul is no different than pollution
of the body or environment. It's more difficult to clean
it up than it would have been to stay out of the dirt.
2.
Keep the computer in a central, busy part of the house with
the screen facing the room.
3.
Learn to monitor your child's use of the Internet. When
your child is faced with temptation, it is easier to resist
it if they know you are able to and will be checking on
their Internet activities. Classes offered by the Community
Cybersafety Program in Georgia teach how to monitor
your child's use of the Internet. There are also online
classes you may find helpful.
4.
Learn about filters and other electronic means to help monitor
and protect your child. Consider using electronic security
and monitoring to supplement the above suggestions. The
Parent Resources
page has links to information about technology solutions.
Resources
Finkelhor,
D., Mitchell, K. J. and Wolak, J. (2000), Online Victimization:
A Report on the Nation’s Youth, Crimes Against Children
Research Center, www.netsmartz.com,
accessed March, 2005.
