Don't Bother Teaching Kids About Internet Safety, Just Sign Up For AOL
from the moral-hazard-much? dept
As AOL has seen their core ISP business deteriorate, one of the ways they've tried differentiating themselves is by offering kid-safe web surfing to worried parents. Though such service could never be a substitute for the booming business they once had, it's not intrinsically a bad service, as parents should take responsibility to monitor their kids' safety. The problem is that, like most products aimed at child safety, the marketing plays upon parents' fear and paranoia. In Canada, the company has put out a poll claiming that parents aren't policing the internet on their own; it even suggests that parents can't police the internet, with half of the respondents reportedly claiming that it's harder to talk about internet safety than it is to talk about sex. The survey comes in the wake of a triple-murder case in which the attackers (a 12-year-old girl and her 23-year-old boyfriend) allegedly met at a website called vampirefreaks.com. At the risk of stating the obvious, it sounds like there's a deeper problem here than a lack of good internet filtering software. Even if this particular girl's parents had signed up for AOL for Kids, that wouldn't have solved the underlying problem. Any company selling a safe internet experience needs to offer parents real safety tools that don't turn the internet into an antiseptic place that no 12-year-old will find cool. Simply selling fear with transparent surveys probably won't do the trick.
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Internet for Dummies
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Re: Internet for Dummies
Who uses AOL?
Vampire freaks. Can't you read?
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AOL understands that...
they are all going to be raped, killed, or worse yet read things that empower them to not fit in with mainstream america
-end sarcasm-
seriously, stop blaming the internet, trying to make it 'child proof' etc, and just TEACH your children - our country finds it impossible to take responsibility, they want others to create solutions so they don't have to. it isn't that hard...
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Internet for Dummies
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Re: Internet for Dummies
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Re: Internet for Dummies
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Re: Re: Internet for Dummies
that is quite possibly the best quote I've ever seen in my life.
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so that also involves your aircraft carrier sinking every 10 minutes and having no throttle control at all? ;)
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Boom
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Re: Boom
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Re: Boom
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this is like
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Re:
Are you kidding me? Seriously now. There's dozens of free programs out there that notify you when you have new mail.
Paying $23.99 for AOL dialup just so you get a "You've got Mail!" sound is a bit ridiculous... I sure hope that 10-year-old 1 second WAV file is worth $14 a month to you.
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unfortunetly, AOL is the second most common browser, second only to internet explorer.
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haha
Don't tell people you don't know AOL sucks... let them think it rocks. That way when I am talking to someone and they say "ya mail me at IAMLAME@AOL.COM I can say "sure thing" and then avoid them for the rest of my life since they have already been added to my RL "tard filter" group.
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Policing
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AOL? Filters?
Filters are easier to get past then child locks on a door knob, tech your freakin kids to keep themselves safe.
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Re:
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Can't sheild kids
These things wouldn't happen as often if parents faced the reality that there kids are people too and will eventually have sex. If they taught their kids (the correct way) by teaching them how to learn and general better judgement instead of just sheltering them...
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Wrong!
Signed,
AOL employees obligated to say that but go home and connect to a different ISP.
BTW, I have done side jobs for AOL'ers... when you sign on to test the Internet access, holy crap, more popups than a porn site.
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Wait a minute!
Hey, hey now, Asian and Hispanic Countries are havin way more babies then the US, So many that if their not having boys their killin em off, so that females are becomming a rare breed indeed in those countries, give it another 20-50 years, it's gonna be an all male sociaty... Gay anyone? heh... whoa... i got way off base here... ummm... USA USA USA!!
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Re: text
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AOL should dry up and blow away
I hate anything that spams as a rule.
AOL spams more then a spamburger factory, and truth be told, your kids would be much safer if you tried to connect to the internet via a slab of salted spam, then AOL Kids.
and parents... umm.. BE PARENTS... teach your kids you knobs. Stop sheisting your responsibilites onto your ISP and your cable company and grow a brain capable of semi-advanced reasoning.
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The internet is the world outside and you want to get out and see it. Using AOL is like adding an extra room to your house full of hallways and crap that will eventually lead through an opening to the world outside, while most other ISPs are just like putting a door in a wall. Why would you install all that extra nonsense? Just use your browser already man.
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A real program
I just wanted to post to everyone out there this link i found where you can download a free program that controls all activities on any computer in your house including msn conversations, websites visited and even takes pictures of the sites your children visit without their knowledge and then send daily report of all it tracked. This software is 100% free to download and can helps thousands of parents protect their children regardless of where they are. Check it out and please pass it on to others in order to help them protect their kids.
www.hoopaa.com
Juliana
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wats up
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