Parents should snoop on their children's internet use to protect them from paedophiles and cyber-bullies, Sara Payne has said. The Victims' Champion called for adults to install monitoring software on computers used by youngsters, and she admitted she checks up on her own children.Thus instilling in the public the idea that the Internet is a dangerous place. And from someone with unimpeachable moral authority, no less.
And from Obo, we learn that we can't expect any help from the new boss:
She wants to examine the possibility that the PCC's role should be extended to cover the blogosphere...Get ready. We are all in the firing line.
To be fair, I think (alas) that she's right - just as you try and keep your children from the wrong peer group.
ReplyDeleteThe big difference is the anonymity of the Web. The internet CAN be a dangerous place, not for an overweight fiftysomething male but maybe for a self-confident but unworldly thirteen year old girl. Because they have something strangers may want - which is not the case for overweight middle-aged males.
As for Baroness Buscombe, she should boil her head.
I'm really not sure what trouble they can get up to sitting at a desk surfing the web, provided they do their homework first, of course. It's the people they might meet when they leave the house you have to think about.
ReplyDelete"install monitoring software"
ReplyDelete"She checks up on her own children"
I'd like to see her check up on any modern child over the age of about ten.
They'd run rings round her.
"To be fair, I think (alas) that she's right - just as you try and keep your children from the wrong peer group."
ReplyDeleteThe one is a physical threat, though, unlike the other.
You can try to prevent your child mixing with them, but you can't go along and sit at their shoulder. You can, however, suggest supervised visits to the Interweb.
"As for Baroness Buscombe, she should boil her head."
Agreed!
"It's the people they might meet when they leave the house you have to think about."
As Mrs Payne knows to her cost.
"I'd like to see her check up on any modern child over the age of about ten.
They'd run rings round her."
Indeed!
Laban : "To be fair, I think (alas) that she's right - just as you try and keep your children from the wrong peer group. "
ReplyDeleteShe is right yes, but what is being pushed is an agenda to make the internet "safe for children".
Any such agenda will rely on heavier monitoring for everyone, there are some cyber bullying figures to go along wit this, which are essentially arse gravy, and the people who did the 'research' (a survey of less than 300 children) the Anti Bullying Association (see my place for more info) have as one of their stated aims 'to influence policy'
Make no mistake, while the up front stuff may seem sensible, it is the velvet glove on the iron fist on control freakery.
Kids have to be trained to cross roads safely, and safety in the kitchen, basic common sense for life.
ReplyDeleteSame with the internet. Unfortunately, some children, out of millions, will never learn or acquire "common sense" throughout their lives,the more you protect kids, the less chance they will learn self survival techniques.As part of life they have to learn to protect themselves.