Vista makes cyberspace safe, kid-friendly
07/05/2007 | 07:09 PM
Email this | Email the Editor | Print | Digg this | Add to del.icio.us
The home PC, wired to a million websites via the Internet, has replaced the TV as the children’s new nanny, and in a predicament all too similar to the parents of an earlier generation. The fathers and mothers of the digital age wonder how to make this new denizen of their home useful but safe.
Baby boomers of the boob tube era and cable century had it easier. All they had to worry about was how much blood, gore, and naked bodies they could see on screen, or how much profanity they were allowed to listen to. The toddlers who were born at the dawn of the information highway and are now racing through it like a pro don’t just watch and hear – they can interact. All that TV could do was connect them to a gazillion images in about a hundred channels; the home PC literally opens up an entire virtual world that can dazzle their senses, make them live out their fantasies, or get them in touch with an online neighbor in a distant country.
Today’s parents have more to worry about than failing grades because of too many hours spent blasting monsters and aliens in a make-believe gladiatorial arena. Just to give you a few nightmare scenarios:
* Adult pornographic websites that could trigger urges and reactions in your pre-teens way before they havethe necessary maturity or knowledge to handle them.
* Online identity thieves who could beguile and charm your teenagers into revealing confidential information that they could use to their advantage and profit, such as your name, address, phone number, credit card numbers, perhaps even bank information.
* Seasoned pedophiliacs who pose in chat rooms as your kids’ peers and buddies, befriend them online and cause them to drop them all caution, and lure them into a more personal encounter where your children can become unsuspecting victims to these sexual predators.
The numbers are alarming. According to 2005 statistics of Familysafemedia.com, the largest number of online patrons of website porn are minors from 12-17 years old. Ninety-percent of them log on to porn sites while doing their homework. Fourteen kids out of 100 willingly give out their e-mail addresses to strangers they chat with.
Enough is Enough (http://enough.org) traces a more horrifying connection between online sexual voyeurism to actual sexual acts. Twenty percent of children who chat online have been contacted by pedophiliacs. The growth of kiddie porn has risen 1500 percent in the past twenty years and images of children created for adult online viewing now constitute 20 percent of all Internet pornography.
Yet, shutting off the PC – and with it, all the beneficial encyclopediac avenues of learning that it provides – is not an option. Neither can parents monitor what their offspring are doing and reading online 24/7.
Chamir Reyes, a mother of a two boys, sums up the dilemma of parents everywhere: “My eldest uses the Internet to research for school papers and our youngest is now able to play some games online on his own. As a parent, I don’t want to deny them of the benefits of technology, but at the same time, I have my worries and wonder if they are protected from possible dangers online. I think parents need a system that will let us monitor what our children do when they go online, so we will know if it’s time for us to step-in and guide them."
In response to this growing and very vital concern, Microsoft
Windows Vista’s Family Safety and User Accounts is a user-friendly, extremely friendly tool that enables parents to exercise their parental duties without depriving their children of the invaluable learning and harmless fun that cyberspace creates.
First, Windows Vista provides parents a summary of the websites that their children visited and the activities they indulged in (regardless of whether Dad and Mom are at work or in the next room). On their own time, parents can then gauge for themselves whether these activities and websites post sufficient danger (a preview of the next Tarzan movie may be acceptable, but streaming video that promises to show what the ape man and his mate do in their nights off should be hidden from view).
Next, a cautious parent can exercise his “block downloading" options. Certain sites could be programmed as inaccessible, and can be viewed only when the parent is around to type in the necessary password.
The amount of time that a child spends on the PC can also be monitored and regulated. Parents can program specific time periods for their children’s online use, e.g. two hours during weeknights for homework and perhaps three hours for surfing relaxation during weekends.
Chay Saputil, Windows Vista Product Manager of Microsoft
The program enables each parent to exercise their personal preferences, as one father’s adrenaline-charged virtual battle may be another mother’s bloody nightmare.
Chay elaborates: “One of the best things about the Parental Control features in Windows Vista is that it allows adults with different parenting styles or techniques to guide their children as they use the Internet. People have different thoughts on what their kids could or could not view on the Web, and Windows Vista is flexible enough to accommodate this."
She adds: “Microsoft understands the need to allow these children to learn and grow as they experience the benefits of technology, but also, at the same time, guide them as they explore and utilize the Internet. We want to enable parents to do what they do best, which is caring for their kids and watching out for them."
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/49782/Vista-makes-cyberspace-safe-kid-friendly
No comments:
Post a Comment