Parents Struggle With Online Filter Issue
from the what-to-do? dept
SF Gate has an article about parents struggling with whether or not to use web filters for their kids. Some parents think it's censorship, but at the same time are disgusted by some of the sites out there - and how they use tricky methods to get unsuspecting people to their sites. I have some opinions on this, but I'm not a parent - which probably does something to disqualify me from speaking up. However, my general opinion is that the filters don't really work anyway; they let in plenty of porn, and keep out plenty of useful sites so kids are going to eventually come across porn anyway. In that case, it's important to teach your kids that such things are out there - and how they should deal with it. Along the same lines, I tend to think that "filter" type solutions can be used as something of a cop out by a parent who is avoiding actually talking to their children. As such, it could actually make the kids even more interested in finding out what's hidden from them - without having the benefit of a parent explain to them what they're dealing with.
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In the case of porn, I think it would be better if the porn sites had been moved to their own part of the internet. Instead of .com, have .xxx, .adult, those sorts of things. Easy to filter, without filtering out art sites and sites with general nudism but without being explitative about it.
Yes, kids did used to be able to nick a magazine or two but the internet is different in both degree and kind. It was easier to stop genuinely illegal stuff when it came out in magazine format, and you really had to steal or buy it, it wasn't shoved into your face. Porn sites show up when you are just searching google for totally unrelated things, they hijack urls that seem totally innocent at first glance, and even if you don't want to see them on the internet you can't help but do so from time to time. That's how they advertise, deviously.
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