I've just finished reading this BBC News article, in which the parents are suing MySpace because their children were alleged victims of sexual assault by men whom they'd met from the program. While I have the deepest of sympathies for these girls, if the allegations are proven in a court of law, one thing that bothers me most of all is, where were the parents?
To be sure, parents cannot oversee their children every waking moment of the day, but why weren't they checking what their children were doing on the PCs? The lame, technophobic excuses such as "Well, I don't know anything about computers," just doesn't hold water. When it comes to their own child's safety, it is imperative they become educated to ensure the child's welfare is protected above all other considerations.
Not sure of how to go about this? Use NetNanny for starters to help keep the home system more secure. Use a keylogger such as Spy Lantern to capture whole transcripts and see who your child is conversing with online. While blogging sites such as MySpace may share some culpability with facilitating child predation by misusers of their site, the first line of defence - the family firewall - must start with the parent. After all, what's worse? Being confused and having to ask lots of questions which may leave one open to ridicule by the computer cognoscenti, or dealing with the ramifications of a sexual assault upon one's precious child?
Any good parent wouldn't even pause for a nanosecond to contemplate the options posed herein.
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