sorry to be so heavy, internet woes

well then, ill just have turn the internet off.

or send in jack bauer...... (since chuck norris was the abused little boy).


the important thing is educating our kids. as in dont take off your clothes infront of a web camra, or dont have a web cam. the internet is dangerous, just like a car, a gun, a vote. we dont just hand those over to kids and not monitor them and say "have fun!" kids dont have free speach right like adults (ie at school).

Why do kids need webcams?

and i thought i had to worry about getting one for my daughter.

I agree on the webcams point, I don't see why kids need them (or anyone for that matter, but maybe that's just me).
I agree that it's important to monitor/educate kids - but they are curious, intelligent, and also prone to getting sucked into things.
almost as important: what about all of the adult members of our communities that are engaging in this? This is really a significant problem, and I don't feel comfortable turning a blind eye to the fact that it is a growing trend, and the adults involved are teachers, doctors, lawyers in our communities, who engage in this with impunity.

I dont think that this is an explosion. It has always been a problem. The internet and the media have brought it to light.

I also think that there is one easy solution. Be a good parent and educate your child of these dangers. Open communication with kids is the key to this success. Telling your kids that they dont need to be on the computer all the time is ok. Telling them "no" is ok. They will still love you at the end of the day.

There really is no reason for children to have computers and TVs and such in their room. I don't have a computer in my bedroom. You have to keep an eye on you children. And no you can't always be there, but you should pay attention when you are.

Sorry about the rant.

One of the best analogies that I ever heard was a person who described a city and how there are "safe" parts of town where you allow your children to walk around with you and depending on their age, maybe alone. There are also "unsafe" parts of town where you would never dream of letting your children visit with you or anyone else.

The internet is like that. There's a lot of good information available, and of course, a lot of bad. You just have to monitor where they are going.

As a parent, I believe in keeping the computer in a "public" area of the house, such as the family room. Then I can casually observe what they're looking at on the internet. As my sons became teenagers, I invested in an excellent software called "Cybersitter". It blocks out most obscene material, and you can even customize it to block out specific websites you may want to keep out of your house (such as rushlimbaugh.com if you're a die-hard liberal!) I believe you can use it to monitor their IMs but I never went that far. My oldest son was/is a computer whiz so it was a challenge to stay ahead of him sometimes, but these methods worked pretty well.

Being a good parent is always a challenge and we all make mistakes. But paying attention and staying involved are two ways to help your children to experience the world (and cyberspace) in relative safety.

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I agree with the OP. It's not just about our own kids - what about the kids who don't have good parental guidance? Or ones who are home alone after school while their parents are at work? I worry about all of them.

I've watched one of the 20/20 (or Dateline or whatever it was) specials where they catch all the men who come to the house looking for the "teens" they met online. It is astonishing and disgusting to see them saunter in with food, candy, video games - anything to entice the kids. Of course there were all sorts of people - teachers, coaches, a rabi. The show I watched was all filmed in a short period of time too - I can't remember if it was one day or a weekend, but not over months or anything.

Even though I'm planning on teaching my kids good computer safety and monitoring their use I still don't think I'll ever let my kids have a computer in their bedrooms as they get older.

I agree with you - I don't think I would be comfortable letting a child have a computer in their rooms. As far as the 20/20 episode -this is exactly what I am talking about! I understand that pedophilia and child porn, and abuse, etc. have been around for longer than any of us, and that it was pushed underground by shame, etc. so that yes, you had community leaders by day doing this behind closed doors for example, but on the "sauntering up to the front door" part - I really do feel, and maybe I am just going on heresay and these news segments (and personal stories from friends that I've been discussing this with) that they're this trend of it becoming easier for adults to seek out this kind of thing, and take advantage of children in a way that wasn't possible and/or as easy as pre-internet days, and that it's getting worse. Until all of this is brought out into the broad daylight, people are exposed and their computers are somehow searched, this can only get worse. This links into child-trafficking, etc., which is an international epidemic. Yes existed before, but with the internet, it has made it possible for this kind of exploitation to grow in frightening proportions. There absolutely has to be some serious solutions to these issues, it's just too upsetting for me to think otherwise. I'm not saying pornography is wrong between consenting adults, or free speech is not important, or that I want to be censoring and spied on by the government 24/7, but there needs to be a comprehensive way to attack this issue head on, and yes our priority should be first, to protect our own children and loved ones from abuse, but as a community, we need to open our eyes anf find constructive ways to bring this to light and fight it.

It's not just webcams in the rooms that are the problem. Some peope just go on and chat online to find kids - they don't need cameras. I totally agree that the parents need to be more vigilant, but unfortunately lots of them aren't.

Did anyone see the show about the little girl who was adopted by a pedophile? She had to live with him and got abused for years before they caught him. She came onto one of these shows and talked about it - it was horrible.

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I did see that program about the young girl adopted by the pedophile. What is so frightening is that there is such a large number of young children out their that are poor, that don't have parents or guardians, and are bought and sold to be exploited around the world, but predominantly from developing/"emerging" countries like east Asia and eastern Europe by predominantly Western middle class and upper middle class men and rings. What about that British ex-rocker who was charged with molesting two young girls (11 and 12 I believe) in Vietnam? These "vacation resorts" cropping up in countries like Vietnam, where these fantasies are catered to are really disturbing - the way that our government, their governments and people in general let this happen in the open and on such a wide scale is really disturbing. I had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time in northern Brazil. It is very common for men from around the world to go there to look for "girlfriends" and/or "brides." Yes if they are of age, it is their "right," but underage prostitution (13, 14, 15 year olds) is *very common, and something that the government there is only now with international pressure beginning to crack down on. But what about the governments/communities from which their (predominantly) men come from. Why as a society are we not expressing outrage at this practice of seeking out young, poor girls and boys from different countries on your "vacations" to service your fantasies. I've already had this discussion with several men about the Brazil theme that are like "oh, but it's different there" - what does that mean!? yes, the level of poverty, crime, lack of jobs, etc and the amount of tourism there is "different" - not the right of young girls and boys to grow up free of exploitation by adults who should know better. In Salvador where I lived, I met several women who met their "husbands" before they reached 16 - husbands from the US, Italy, France, Germany...this practice really needs to be examined.

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I just went to a talk done by the Wetterling Foundation on how to keep our kids safe on the internet. They had some great tips for parents on what to look for and how to keep your kids safe. Some of it was pretty simple, some of it was a little shocking. Even things that can heppen with a parent in the room...But, if you google the Wetterling Foundation, you can get most of the info.
Good stuff for parents to be aware of!

I hate to be the sour hand but we have our problems here in the states. did anyone hear about 9/11? the world is a crazy dangerous place, it sickens me that news agencies highlight heart bleeding stories. a step in the right direction is the sex tourism law that we now have, and the massive amounts of tax dollars that pay for advertising in "sex tourism" areas. but that didnt make big news. there are tons of homeless that wonder around in downtown LA, and beg me for change when im on my lunch break (from my 40 hour a week job, and I do school fulltime and im poor!) I think people should get more concered about our issues at home.

pedophiles over the internet? what about the one that hangout at the parks, even in rich suberia!

You hit it on the head! People need to be parents. I see far too many people that get sucked in to buying the big house, new BMW, second home, etc. But they sacrifice the time they should be spending with their kids, being a parent. If this 13 year old boy in question's parents were paying any attention I bet they would have noticed. I read about this story and if my kid had a webcam in their room, and was parading around in front of that webcam, it's going to raise a red flag with me.

Good Luck,
Jay

A recent article about this subject. I'm not sure how effective the credit card campaign (see end of article) will be, but I am optimistic that there will be some solutions to this issue.

Feds: Chat site showed live molestation By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
Thu Mar 16, 6:35 AM ET



Children, including a baby, were sexually molested while others in a private Internet chat room watched, U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officers said Wednesday in announcing the bust of an international child pornography ring.

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Attorney General Alberto Gonzales called the trading of graphic images and transmitting of live sexual molestation the "worst imaginable form of child pornography."


Twenty-seven people from nine U.S. states and Canada, Australia and Britain have been charged with possession, receipt, distribution and manufacture of child pornography.


Thirteen have been indicted in the USA and 14 abroad. All have been arrested except one, who is now considered a fugitive.


Gonzales said seven children were victims. Among them, according to an indictment, is an infant allegedly molested in April by Brian Annoreno, a suburban Chicago man who went by the nickname "Acidburn" and transmitted images live via the Internet.


His alleged co-conspirator, who logged on from Alberta, Canada, with the screen name "Big_Daddy619," is charged with transmitting live his own sexual molestation of four children younger than 12. Two others of the 27 charged also allegedly molested kids and made the images available in the chat room called "Kiddiepics & Kiddyvids" since April 2005.


"Molestation 'on demand' and an ever-younger and more defenseless group of child victims are two of the most disturbing trends," investigators now find in child pornography rings, said Julie Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security. "This case had both."


Myers said investigators are also seeing more "home-grown" porn involving "new victims."


Previously, she says, 85% of child pornography involved "known victims," with the same images being shown repeatedly.


"This (bust) is a very significant event. The multinational approach was really important," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.


He congratulated authorities but said the only way to shut down commercial child pornography is to eliminate its profitability. He said such pornography has become a multibillion-dollar enterprise and is among the fastest growing businesses on the Internet.


Allen said it's difficult to assess how many child pornography websites exist.


Eighteen prominent banks, credit card companies and Internet service providers joined Allen Wednesday in launching the new Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography. Among them: American Express, Chase, Citigroup, MasterCard, Visa, Bank of America, Microsoft, PayPal and Yahoo.


"If people were purchasing heroin or cocaine and using their credit cards, we would be outraged and do something about it. This is worse, " said Sen. Richard Shelby (news, bio, voting record), R-Ala., chairman of the Senate's banking committee and a founding organizer of the coalition.


The coalition aims to end commercial child pornography by 2008. It will work with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the European Federation for Missing and Sexually Exploited Children and other groups to disrupt the online purchasing of child pornography.

Ditto what BettyLou said. (I like the analogy about good and bad parts of town.) I won't allow my kids to have computers or tvs in their rooms. If they know they're being monitored, they're less likely to get into trouble.

I'm not convinved this child predator issue is a growing trend. Rather, these things have probably gone on forever, but people were too ashamed to come forward and report these perverts to authorites. Further, it's only recently that child predators have begun to receive a lot of coverage from the media. The internet has created a false sense of anonymity where members of the community can indulge in their fantasies without the fear that they might get caught because the interactions aren't necessarily face-to-face (some involve web cams as you mentioned), thereby giving the perverts a sense that they aren't harming anyone by their acts.

I agree that parents need to be more involved with their kids, and there isn't a reason I can think of as to why a child needs a webcam.