Summer Alert: Kids Surfing Dangerously!

ALKHOBAR, 10 July 2007 — In the Kingdom, school holidays are in full swing, but most kids are stuck at home until sunset. It’s just too hot to go outdoors till then. To keep mothers sane, the kids have been parked in front of the PC to do what they will all day. The computer has replaced the TV as the electronic babysitter of choice. I personally have no objection to such a strategy. A PC can be a fun, educational, interactive tool, enriching a child’s life in ways that television never could. But I see that most parents haven’t a clue what their children are doing with their computers and if those machines are connected to the Net — as they should be — then a little ignorance can lead to a lot of grief.

My own son is a computer engineering student who has his own apartment near the university campus. While I generally talk to him every day, a few weeks ago I noticed that I hadn’t actually laid eyes on my prodigy in a while. Wanting to reach out to him in a way that I knew would get his attention, I logged into the social networking utility Facebook, where my son is a member, and on his wall there, scribbled a note about his disappearance from my world.

It was a move that was certainly better than nagging. And complaining about it to one of his friends, my son got a surprise when the other young man advised him that “If your Mom knows how to write on your wall, she must be totally cool.” My son showed up at my door the next evening bearing chocolates and a rose. Score one for the mother.

For parents, learning how to use a PC and the Internet isn’t difficult, but it isn’t optional.

“Few parents would consider handing their child the car keys without having spent time with them behind the wheel. Yet, too often parents give their kids a computer with Internet access and set them free, which can make for an unsafe user experience,” said Peter Watkins, CEO, Webroot Software.

A Webroot study conducted in the US (www.webroot.com/pdf/Webroot_SoIS_Q0207.pdf) found that parents are not fully aware of their children’s online activities. For example, 45 percent of kids say they spend an average of three or more hours on the Internet at home everyday while 76 percent of parents said their children spend an average of two hours or less per day on the Internet at home. As summer gets under way and school-age children log more time on home computers — leaving them open to predators — parents must play an active role in regularly monitoring their children’s online activities.

To help parents learn what is needed to keep children safe in the virtual world, Webroot Software has created a free educational tool for parents, “Protecting Children Online: A Handbook for Parents” available by clicking to: http://www.webroot.com/pdf/sois_pco_0207.pdf?id=RESOURCES_SOIS-OnlineSafety. The 14-page handbook comes complete with safety tips, best practices and a glossary of common acronyms and abbreviations used in text messaging and instant messaging (IM) so parents can understand the messages their kids are sending to others — for example “POS” (Parent Over Shoulder) or “LMIRL” (Let’s Meet In Real Life).

“According to leading child advocacy groups, there is no substitute for education, conversation and software programs to control children’s exposure to harmful online content,” said Watkins. “The Webroot parent handbook will act as an excellent tool to help parents and guardians facilitate conversations with their children on how to protect themselves online.”

Top 5 Online Safety Tips for Parents

1. Open a dialogue. Talk to your child about Internet safety. Surf the web together.

2. Be informed. Know what websites your child visits and with whom they are communicating.

3. Become Internet savvy. Ask your children to teach you how to use programs they use.

4. If you or your children encounter inappropriate contact, report it immediately to law enforcement. Help your child understand what inappropriate contact means to you.

5. Use filtering or monitoring software. Empower yourself by knowing your child is protected online even if you are not there to supervise.

Many parents in Saudi Arabia believe that because the Internet here is filtered by the government, that their children are safe online. Nothing could be further from the truth. What may be acceptable online content for adult viewing, can be totally inappropriate for children. A new free tool called Glubble enables parents to take control of web surfing on the home PC. Download it from www.glubble.com.

Glubble from Glaxstar turns the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser into a family browser. Glubble is designed to create an Internet world you can trust for kids under 12. Glubble enables safe surfing, safe search and online chat — kids can use search engines like Google and Yahoo! to discover new things in the Glubble World. For its Beta launch, websites included in the Glubble World have been pre-loaded to give kids access to a range of trusted brands popular among the under 12 set, including: Animal Planet, Barbie, Discovery Kids, Disney, Fisher-Price, Lego, National Geographic Kids, Nickelodeon, Scholastic and Sesame Street.

Glubble essentially turns Mozilla Firefox into a multi-user, Internet browser. Each person in a family has his or her own user name that can be password protected. This user name permits the range of sites on the web to which the user has access, and shapes the user interface to be age appropriate — freeing parents from the worry that kids will visit sites with unsuitable content.

Simple and easy to download and use, Glubble is pre-loaded to access only a host of trusted sites and it allows grown-ups to add or take away sites to tailor a child’s personal Glubble. For grown-ups, the experience is surfing as usual with access to the entire Internet. However, kids only have access to sites trusted and approved by grown-ups authorized to add and remove those sites in a child’s Glubble World. When children attempt to search for or access a site that is not approved, an alert is sent to the grown-up, asking if he or she would like to add the new content to the child’s Glubble. Parents can empower anyone — grandparents, aunts and baby-sitters — to receive alerts and give approvals as well.

A tool such as Glubble enables parents to offer their children the best of what’s out on the Net. And while we’re discussing the best of the Net for children, don’t miss the following two sites, which will offer many hours of edutainment.

BrainPOP (www.brainpop.com) features roughly 600 animated movies with content in the areas of Science, Math, English, Social Studies, Health, Arts and Music and Technology. Each movie is supported by activities such as a quiz, comic strip, experiment and other printable worksheets, all of which speak to kids in Grades 3-12, in a language and voice that they can understand. Founded in 1999 by Avraham Kadar, M.D., BrainPOP has won multiple education and media awards. There is also BrainPOP Jr. (www.brainpopjr.com), targeted to children in grades K-3.

BrainPOP is a subscription-based product which costs $175 per year, however each of the BrainPop subject areas features at least five different animated features that are available free without even registration. Do not miss the movie in the Math section on the Fibonacci Sequence. It is a wonderful example of just how amusing math can be when it’s taught well. This site works best with a broadband connection.

Youngsters should also be encouraged to take a look at Whyville.net, a safer learning-based virtual world for today’s digital kids. The community is geared to teen and pre-teens. Whyville’s 1.7 million registered citizens or “Whyvillians” come from all over to learn, create and have fun together. Whyville has places to go, things to do and of course, people to see. Whyville has its own newspaper, its own beach, museum, City Hall and town square, its own suburbia and even its own economy — citizens earn “clams” by playing educational games.

Joining Whyville is free and the community has built-in checks to protect kids from mistreating one another and to keep out predators. In 2006, Whyville received iParenting’s award as the best website for kids, and best on the web for its safety features.

The site has a lot to offer its “citizens.” They can participate in a nutrition project that graphically shows how food affects the body. There are treasure hunts for gems and paintings. The goal of such activities are to teach about geology and art history. Disease control, the environment and even robotics are presented in ways that actively engage young people.

The Net is a fantastic tool that can enrich the lives of youngsters, but it is the responsibility of parents to direct their children to sites that offer them an engaging experience — and discuss that experience around the dinner table.