Don't Bother Teaching Kids About Internet Safety, Just Sign Up For AOL

from the moral-hazard-much? dept

Mon, May 8th 2006 1:19pm — Joseph Weisenthal

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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36 Comments

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zamo, 8 May 2006 @ 1:45pm

Internet for Dummies
Who uses AOL?
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SuckerPunch-tm, 8 May 2006 @ 1:58pm

Re: Internet for Dummies
Internet for Dummies by zamo on May 8th, 2006 @ 1:45pm
Who uses AOL?

Vampire freaks. Can't you read?
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bob, 8 May 2006 @ 2:01pm

I've used AOL and the parental controls are more like a prison than a safety feature, "Sorry you are under 18 you are not allowed outside of AOL Kids" that is more or less how it is. I could remind you of the story about the guy who wrapped himself in bubble wrap because he was scared of germs, its the same with kids and the net, you can't protect them from bad things all you can do is teach them right.
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Steve Case, 8 May 2006 @ 2:02pm

Internet for Dummies
AOL is a wonderful service everyone should take advantage of. Its like sailing into the Pacific with an Aircraft Carrier rather than a Dingie like all the other ISP's provide.
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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 2:07pm

Re: Internet for Dummies
wow ur an idiot
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Adam Singer, 8 May 2006 @ 2:14pm

AOL understands that...
The internet is a huge mystery to everyone, and that protecting your children is impossible...

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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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 2:15pm

Re: Re: Internet for Dummies
Wow...you don't know who Steve Case is...
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stu, 8 May 2006 @ 2:18pm

"AOL is a wonderful service everyone should take advantage of. Its like sailing into the Pacific with an Aircraft Carrier rather than a Dingie like all the other ISP's provide."

so that also involves your aircraft carrier sinking every 10 minutes and having no throttle control at all? ;)
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Aunt Jemimah, 8 May 2006 @ 2:24pm

Boom
Ya know what's funny... All you have to do is sign on to AOL and use Firefox, IE or any other browser over AOL. Instant Pr0n!!
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Sean, 8 May 2006 @ 2:42pm

Re: Boom
Hahahah. Sounds about right. Fucking AOL...
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drkkgt, 8 May 2006 @ 2:50pm

this is like
when they had those commercials about how it protected you from all the evils of the world, and the one guy had his hard drive crash. So it protects you from hard drive crashes or is it that they can give you back all your data, since they backed it up to their servers so they could sift thru it?
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Syed, 8 May 2006 @ 2:55pm

The oly goos ting about Aol is its mail.
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ViPeRDeSiGnZ, 8 May 2006 @ 3:04pm

"Who uses AOL?"

unfortunetly, AOL is the second most common browser, second only to internet explorer.
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Techy Dude, 8 May 2006 @ 3:05pm

haha
No... you guys are going about it the wrong way.

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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Bored Surfer, 8 May 2006 @ 3:12pm

Re:
"The oly goos ting about Aol is its mail."

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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Tech Chick, 8 May 2006 @ 3:22pm

Given the choice of AOL or no internet at all, I'd sign off permanently!
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Ron, 8 May 2006 @ 3:25pm

Policing
What part of "vampirefreaks.com" and "12 year old girl and her 23 YEAR OLD BOYFRIEND" would AOL's policing fix? The parent of the girl should be run in for child endangerment and whatever other charges can be brought. They are not parents; they are the worst scum on this planet.
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Stan, 8 May 2006 @ 3:38pm

AOL? Filters?
who uses AOL?
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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Anonymouse Coward, 8 May 2006 @ 3:50pm

If americans would just stop having kids we wouldn't have this problem.
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Intergalactic Hussy, 8 May 2006 @ 4:07pm

Can't sheild kids
How about teaching kids how to interpret information rather than shielding them from it altogether? They'll just have the "Catholic School-girl Syndrome" a few years later. If someone likes AOL because its easy, fine. Not everyone is so tech savvy that they'd understand how to use firefox or OSS whatever else (especially the much older generation... like my parents). But using because someone wants to protect his/her child from everything "bad" in the world... is silly and will only come back on the parent... oh wait excuse me... its just the sex they find "bad" but violence is always okay. If something's going to be bitched about, shouldn't it at least be the other way around?

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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Not the Stan from above., 8 May 2006 @ 4:08pm

Wrong!
Umm... What you idiots talking about!?! AOL is AMAZING! Best service ever with only the customer in mind.

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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BadXAsh, 8 May 2006 @ 4:17pm

Wait a minute!
by Anonymouse Coward on May 8th, 2006 @ 3:50pm
If americans would just stop having kids we wouldn't have this problem

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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MOD, 8 May 2006 @ 4:23pm

Re: Internet for Dummies
Everytime I show an AOL user how to use Firefox with a blistering fast connection, an AOL accountant dies, and I smile.
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|333173|3|_||3, 8 May 2006 @ 4:47pm

Re:
This would ultimately solve all the "americans are evil" problems.
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BlackCow, 8 May 2006 @ 5:34pm

Im 15, and my dad never put restrictions on the internet. And I thank god he dident! I would probaly be one of those kids who spend their time watching TV being force fed ideas from the Fox network and would probaly have a myspace account (errgh).
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Anonymouse Spam-Hater, 8 May 2006 @ 5:39pm

AOL should dry up and blow away
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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Duh, 8 May 2006 @ 5:44pm

Re: Boom
Filtered accounts don't allow that, they block internet access to any other program except AOL. I know this, because I was exposed to it's horror when I was younger.
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LexTaliones, 8 May 2006 @ 6:01pm

I never understood AOL, or people who use it. It makes no sense to me. I always thought of it something like this...

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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krum, 8 May 2006 @ 6:18pm

Re: Re: Boom
You just minimize the AOL window and open up Firefox. I've done it a million times. But regardless, parents need to be parents and teach their children what's right and wrong. AOL's software would have done nothing if those two had met at "Vampire Freaks on First & Main" instead of online.
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erbbysam, 8 May 2006 @ 7:10pm

Re: Re: Internet for Dummies
"Everytime I show an AOL user how to use Firefox with a blistering fast connection, an AOL accountant dies, and I smile."
that is quite possibly the best quote I've ever seen in my life.
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Devil's Advocate, 8 May 2006 @ 7:23pm

AOL is like saliling into the pacific with a cruiseliner that has no bottom - sure it SOUNDS promising, but once you have actually signed up for a trip on the POS you realize what you're stuck with. AOL is worse than internet for dummies; it's internet for RETARDS. The internet is full of the stories of people who tried to cancel their service. Fear has been used to sell all sorts of products - and it's not surprising it's customers like the internet prison they put their children into.
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blah, 9 May 2006 @ 12:01pm

0100000101001111010011000010000001110011011101010111100000100000011011010111100100100000011000100110 0001011011000110110001110011
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Juliana, 15 Jun 2006 @ 7:22am

A real program
Hi,

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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Michelle, 15 Jun 2006 @ 9:23am

vampirefreaks is cool.
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sd, 22 Dec 2006 @ 8:23am

Re: text
test!!!
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justinLuvr, 13 Apr 2007 @ 6:46am

wats up
im really glad that me and miranda and demi are bak together again!!!its been a really long time since weve hung out!!!im sooooooo excited tooo!!!todaay im goen to mirandas with her and demi!!!awesomeness!!!!
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