Be safe in cyberspace

Blocking sites isn’t enough; being a non-judgmental, understanding parent can be the best monitoring systemRichik Naidu was researching penguins for a class project when he stumbled onto questionable online material for the first time. “Apparently it was an ad for a hook-up site,” his mother, Kaveri Naidu, said, when the confused nine-year-old called her to the computer. The working mother of three wasn’t surprised when she saw the pop-up ad featuring scantily clad women inviting users to chat with them. “I told Richik that some people like to trick others online though scams and viruses. I told him to close any windows that aren’t related to his search, and we moved on from there,” she said. Kaveri’s laissez-faire attitude towards internet safety stems from having dealt with the issue with her older children back in the early 2000s, when the internet was still in its nascent stages in the UAE.  “Back then, everything was completely open, leaving the responsibility on parents. Nowadays, objectionable sites are blocked, so whatever kids may come across can’t be that bad,” Kaveri added.Still, the odd ‘meet Dubai girls’ pop-up tends to shake the sensibilities of many parents who feel the need for increased Internet monitoring. IT Operations Manager, Evangeline Torres admittedly watches over her children like a hawk. “I’m glad we live in a country where things I don’t want my children exposed to are blocked. However, the problem with this is it gives parents a false sense of security. We shouldn’t rely on technology to the point where speaking to our kids about the dangers becomes secondary,” she said. Abu Dhabi-based psychologist, Dr Mehnaz Koory suggests a middle path. “Children are curious by nature, and the Internet is a boundless source for answers, so it acts as a natural magnet for young inquisitive minds. By shielding them from the dangers of the medium, parents may handicap their children when they eventually are exposed to inappropriate content. Yet letting the censors do your parenting for you is a highly irresponsible way of looking at the situation.” Internet filtering software provides parents with two main options: a ‘blacklist’ and a ‘whitelist’.A blacklist filters out sites based on categories, like sexual or violent material. Filters generally do this by keyword searches to ensure that sites contain a certain number of undesirable words are blocked. A whitelist allows children to only access approved sites, narrowing down their options considerably. Most of the Internet search engines like Google and Yahoo, allow users to set search filters (strict, moderate, none) in order to weed out explicit results.“If we put porn aside for a second and actually consider other dangers online, you’d realise that blocking sites isn’t enough. Social networking and chat sites allow children access to all kinds of people, and that’s a lot more frightening,” Kaveri said. Her older children have Facebook and Twitter accounts, but only after they hit the 15-year age bar. “I think 15 is a good age to get on social networks because they’re mature enough to know that they should only get close to people they know in real life. I’ve also made sure that they use a high level of privacy settings,” she added. Recently, Kaveri’s 19-year-old daughter, Raveena, came across a group on a social network inviting residents of their gated community for “discreet sex.” She reported the group to the social network and it has been taken down since.“It’s common knowledge that there are creepy people online. I don’t think anyone I know in my age group would ever accept a friend request from a stranger,” Raveena said. Even so, as an increasing number of children under 13 start exploring the Internet, parents and educators are running out of ways to protect them without curtailing their experience. Yahoo! Middle East’s Safety Oasis Campaign, launched earlier this year, outlines the basics of online etiquette; from avoiding cyber-bullying to staying away from nasty pop-up ads; in a child-friendly way though a series of animated adventures.Anas Abbar, Head of Global and Regional Product Management at Yahoo! Middle East, spoke to Khaleej Times about the campaign’s goals and successes in the region so far. “Our research showed that an overwhelming 78 per cent of parents interviewed wanted increased safety online, but 65 per cent of them did not know how to broach these sensitive topics without harming the innocence of their child. The Safety Oasis Campaign basically allows for children to pass six mini-adventures while learning how to use the Internet. At the end of their adventure, they would have learned how to set up an e-mail account, how to conduct a simple search and how to chat with people they trust,” he said.The flash animation features siblings Sam and Sarah (Zain and Nahya in the Arabic version) teaching their visiting alien friend, Spacey, on how to use the Internet. The antagonist in their world comes in the form of a devious masked man known as Wily Hacker, with mini-puzzles aimed at driving Wily out of the Internet to a far-off island.Many may be aware of the potential dangers in cyberspace, yet everyone is equally at risk of overexposing their lives to complete strangers. According to Evangeline Torres’ background in IT Operations, this is where the importance of the digital footprint comes in. “Even adults who don’t have e-mail or social network accounts can still leave traces of their life online, from which schools they attended to where they currently work. We’re all just one Google search away.”Protect children.The best Internet monitoring system is a non-judgmental, understanding parent.Before allowing children access to the Internet, make sure they understand the potential dangers out there; from money-making scams to online sexual predators.Set up a computer nook in an open area of the house like the living room or den. For children under 15, Dr Koory advises parents to surf the Web with them, guiding them to the right search results and helping them set up their own personal e-mail accounts.For children with smartphones, parents can always opt for social networking packages that lets them chat with their friends without having unrestrained Internet access.