Each time children log onto the internet, they are coming into contact with adults with malicious and often dangerous intents. The parents of this generation may have only recently started using the internet. Children, on the other hand, are starting young. With children often having secret passwords and hidden privacy settings, parents are often unaware of the danger their children are in while they are online. Only a fraction of parents actively monitor their children’s activity when they are on the internet. Also, most children and teens are not only willing to share personal information online, a sizable percentage are also willing to meet up with strangers they have met online. The danger this puts them in is immense. The majority of North American parents do not supervise their children while they are online. There are simple ways to do this, but it is not being done. One of the easiest ways for parents to know what their children are doing online is by checking their internet history. Most children do not bother to delete their history, and it can be accessed by finding the settings of the internet, and selecting the “history” button. Some may not consider this a way to monitor their children’s computer usage, but malware and virus protection software is a great tool to have. It protects the computer from software, pictures, and videos children may download that could be potentially harmful to the computer. The final method to make sure children are safe online is with the use of blocking. Parents can block dangerous and inappropriate chat rooms and websites from a computer. It takes a bit more work, but it guarantees that children won’t see anything or talk to anyone they are not supposed to. These small changes can make... ... middle of paper ... ...know the intentions of the adult they are meeting, but their naivety does not protect them from the dangerous situations they are putting themselves in. If these meetings are being done in secret, or in private places, the ramifications for the teen can be extremely grim, and therefore cannot be taken lightly. The internet is becoming more and more popular, and each day more children and teens are logging on. Most Canadian parents are unaware of the danger their children are in every time they go on the computer. A sizeable percentage of parents are not monitoring their children while they are on the internet, which is leading to personal information being given away and dangerous situations for children and teens in real life. Parents must begin to monitor their children and talk to them about the dangers of strangers online to ensure their children are secure.
Internet is advancing every day, parents have no idea what their kids are doing in cyberspace and are contemplating the idea of spyware. In the article, “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben, he argues the idea of parents putting spyware on kids’ computer is a good idea to keep the child safe. Many American parents have no idea what happens in cyberspace; sex, bullying, and drugs. Parents are torn between protecting their child with spyware and allowing the child to have privacy. Coben uses his friends’ personal experiences to support his argument without leaving room for counterarguments. By using strong emotional appeals, weak qualifiers, and sugary word choice Coben creates a weak argument that lacks persuasion.
Harlan Coben’s essay “The Undercover Parent” attempts to enlighten readers, specifically parents, of the benefits to installing spyware onto their children’s computers in order to keep record of their child’s online activity. Whilst admitting at first he was not particularly keen on spyware himself, Coben aims to persuade his audience of the benefits by highlighting the dangers of children using the internet unsupervised and without boundaries. However, Coben fails to supply factual evidence to back up his claims, all while stating a number of contradictions within his own arguments.
The expansion of the Internet infrastructure across the world, has brought an increased audience. Which has provided expanded markets for businesses and exploited new opportunities. There are virtually countless social sites and media used by individuals to access and share experiences , content, insights, and perspectives. Parents today tend to believe they should spy on their kids online activity. I argue parents should respect the privacy of a child's social life and his/her internet activity.
We have all watched television shows, we have heard the warnings, and have read numerous articles that expose internet predators and pedophiles. Most of us are aware of the dangers surrounding children and teenagers as they navigate the internet’s virtual world. There is no shortage of predators online. Chris Hanson has a very popular show called To Catch a Predator that has helped bring awareness to the public of this heinous crime against children, and while this is extremely important to know and prevent, there is another large segment of society that is at risk too. This paper will focus on this “other” population.
Kids now want to be more independent and have more freedom which might scare some if not most parents. A lot of parents look at the internet as a dangerous tool and not a tool where their kids can have some freedom. Although parents need to realize that they can’t protect their kids from all ...
Online predators, pornography, drug trafficking, piracy, and hate sites are just some of the dangers that a child can face on the internet. The article “The Undercover Parent” by Harlan Coben states that parents should use spyware to monitor their children. Coben argues that parents should be able to know what is in their children’s lives. he believes that spyware can prevent children from being targeted by internet predators on social networking sites and even prevent children from being cyber bullied. I agree with Coben’s claim that parents should consider using spyware as a protection for their teens online. There are many possible dangers facing children on the internet and it is essential that parents install spyware.
There is no single method to perfect parenting. As such, it is up to the parents to decide how they involve themselves in their child’s life. In his essay, “The Undercover Parent,” Harlan Coben argues why spyware might be an effective tool for parents to monitor their children; however, he does not consider all the effects of and alternatives to using spyware. Parents should not use spyware to monitor their children because everyone has a right to privacy, independence fosters growth, and there are better alternatives to using spyware.
Another reason for not censoring the internet is the psychological effects that it can have on a child. The filtering of the internet can tell a child that adults do not trust them to surf the net on their own. This can lead them to believe that they can not make their own decisions, and that a computer determines what right and wr...
The internet is a wonderful learning tool. Of course, like any good thing, the Internet comes with its ups and downs. There are several things that aren’t suitable for any child on the internet, such as pornography, violent material, adult chat rooms, and racist or hateful sites, there are even websites about cheating in schools.
The Internet has affected our lives in a considerable way. We use the internet in order to connect with society, look up information for work and educational purposes, shop, handle daily errands such as paying bills and so on. Children are not excluded from this, in fact they are capable of using internet more effectively than adults. The reason for this being that chıldren are able to learn to use new technology faster than theır adult counterparts. It is wıdely accepted that having internet connection can be very useful for children, teachers and children consider internet as a powerful tool to access to academic sources to research for theır classes and homework (Ofcome, 2007). Also having the internet is perceived as an good opportunity for children to meet new people and keep up with their friends. This is true if children use internet in a proper way. However, there is a possibility that they can encounter inappropriate materials even while searching for educational information or trying to relax with games. Violent scenes and uncensored sexual material cause serious damage for childhood development, as they can cause children to be aggressive and lonely adults. The first solution for protecting children from these harms is internet blocking and filtering programs. Although they come to forefront by means of their easy usage properties, most of the time filtering programs cannot provide an overall coverage from the internet’s harm. Therefore, parents should have involved in this process by monitoring and helping their children. Moreover media lessons which inform students about the internet’s harm can be very helpful for children.
Finally, the current parental oversharing of sensitive information is a trending topic, as it is especially affecting today’s children, adolescents, and young adults. The longevity of anything posted on the internet makes it extremely hard to come up with any solutions to this issue, although it could be avoided if parents were more careful and thoughtful when posting anything regarding their
There are programs available to those parents who feel it is necessary to monitor their childs use of the Internet. Cybersitter can be purchased for around $39.95, and can help to regulate your web browser keeping your childs access to the world wide web restricted. There is even and option in which incoming and outgoing e-mails for inappropriate material.
“Parents play an important role in the psychosocial development and well-being of their children” (van den Eijnden). Undeniably, the quote makes a bold declaration that all parents in today’s technologically advanced society should understand and follow. With 90% of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 15 using the internet (Sorbring), it is important for an adult to monitor their daily usage and behavior. “Only 39 percent of parents report using parental controls for blocking, filtering, or monitoring their teenager’s online activities” (Dell’anotnia). Parents should monitor their teenagers’ daily internet use and behavior by engaging in meaningful conversations and dialogue that allow for fostering a healthy relationship.
Internet has become a new equipment to improve violence and disobedience. Teenagers can have easy access to the pornography sites or adult’s chartrooms. As a matter of fact recent researches has shown that Despite the potential negative effects on children using the Internet, more than 30% of surveyed parents had not discussed the downside of Internet use with their children (Internet Advisory Board, 2001), and 62% of parents of teenagers did not realize that their children had visited inappropriate Web sites (Yankelovich Partner...
To begin with, while using the internet, children are exposed to different kinds of materials. In most cases, they are exposed to inappropriate ones such as sexually explicit materials and/or violent ones (Magid, 2003). Some children, especially adolescents, are curious about sexuality and sexually explicit material; they can move away from their family and seek fulfillments for their curiosities online. Hence, dangerous situations commonly occur due to the child molesters on the other side of the net waiting to find those children, seduce them, and manipulate them (Freeh, 2008). It is also worth mentioning that other children can be exposed to such resources by accident; they can receive them through e-mail spam or when a popup that contains violent or sexual materials opens in front of them (Magid, 2003). Also, there are some people who attempt to sexually exploit children online. Some of them progressively seduce their targets through the use of attention, affection, kindness, and gifts. They are often willing to devote considerable amounts of time, money, and energy during this course of action. They listen to and empathize with the problems of children. They are aware of the latest music, hobbies, and interests of the youngster. They also attempt to gradually lower children's inhibitions by slowly introducing sexual context and content into their conversations (Freeh, 2008) which can get them to gain the trust of those targeted children and can lead to meet them face-to-face.