Real-Life kids, internet, and adult materials.

Recently I posted an article on AquaDuckie.com about kids and adult content (i.e. porn). I have some parents writing me: "My child would never do such a thing." and "Censorship, even of children is wrong." and "If you hide these things from them, they will just try harder to find them."

I tried and tried to talk to these parents and counsel them on the facts of porn, the internet, and children. Nothing seemed to work. No one seemed to listen. So, in an effort to further explain my cause, I offer a real-life, real-world experience.

A client, who happens to have a 10 year old boy, had me visit their home because they recently lost the majority of their financial records on their computer. They were a referral from another client.

I sat down at their computer, and offered the general suggestions and fixes for the dilemma. Dad suggested that I was just trying to oversell them. He works on computers at his office, and things like a firewall, SPAM protection, and Spyware are corporate problems....not neccessary for home users. Yes, Yes....at this point, I should have just packed my bags and left. Dad knows best, right?

Well, for better or worse, both myself and my co-workers have a conscience. I explained what all these things really meant, and why it was important for home users....plus showed them quite clearly that someone had hacked their unsecure wireless connection, and simply copied their Microsoft Money file to their own computer.

Needless to say, they finally agreed and the firewall was put in, I secured their wireless network, and managed to find a recently deleted copy (probably left by the hacker) on the hard drive and got them back up and running.

Then walks in little Jimmy (not his real name, of course). I asked Jimmy how often he got to use the computer, and if he got to use the computer alone. Without even blinking, I knew I would find porn on the computer too.....the spyware alone let me know that. So, here comes another conversation with Mom and Dad.

You guessed it...Dad knows best. "None of that crap is in my house!" I explained to Dad that YES, I can guarentee without a doubt I could find porn on his computer, and I bet good money that little 10 year old Jimmy was to blame...even if by accident (yeah, right). So, on goes the monitoring software, and 10 days.

10 days later, I got my email, and sure enough....Porn, porn, porn....all kinds of it. And, then the phone call to Mom and Dad. They didn't want to hear it, they couldn't believe it, and even after faxing them the report, Dad said he NEVER EVER wanted to hear my name again. And, he planned on visiting the local school to let them know I was planting this junk on their computer to sell them a product.

I felt bad. I knew I was right, and I was just trying to protect the child after all. Why in the world was I to blame?

Time passed and I never got a whole lot of hate mail form anyone; and so, I dismissed the whole event from my mind. Guess who called last week. YEP, Dad called. Seems that Jimmy, now 11, showed Tommy some "naked girls" on his computer at home when they were working on "homework" for school. Fortunately, Tommy told his mother, and even showed her how to get that kind of stuff up on the screen. So, when Tommy's mom visited dear old Dad....can you imagine the fly on that wall? Dad did apolgize, and Dad also admitted that I wrongly accussed his son, when it could have been him on the computer.

FOLKS....wake up. The number one marketor of porn is A) THE INTERNET. And, the number one guerilla marketor of porn is A) THE INTERNET. There is more money made in 1 minute on the internet in porn sales than probably a week or even a month at a store. And, if you truly believe kids "aren't" going to look, you are wrong. If you believe that they will never "mistakely" stumble across questionable material, you are wrong.

I can't stop 100% of the porn getting to your kids. I can't stop their curiosity about it either. But, what I can do is attempt to remove the tempation, I can stop the accidential viewing of material, and I can help keep your kids safe. RobertKohl.com and AquaDuckie.com both support "safe kid surfing". Ask for help before Tommy knocks on your door.