Every new computer will come with web filters as a default, the Prime Minister said today, writing in the Daily Mail that “a silent attack on innocence is under way in our country today and I am determined that we fight it with all we’ve got.”
But what exactly have we got? The Government doesn’t even trust itself to put NHS records online, for fear of leaking personal details. This Government – and all governments – have a seriously unsophisticated approach to the web; the Chinese regularly fail with their firewall, and you’ve got to be pretty sure that they’ve got their best guys on the job.
After rejecting an opt-in system, Mr Cameron now says that when people switch on a new computer, they will be asked if there are children in the house. If they answer yes, they will be prompted automatically to tailor their computer’s internet filters accordingly. Now, leaving aside the fact that, unless your children are toddlers, they may well be the first in your house to turn on a new machine, I’m a bit uneasy about this Government fix.
While it sounds like a good idea to have “default on” filters, children are savvy when it comes to technology – most often far savvier than their parents. I’m guessing that if I – a complete tech-phobe – can quickly turn off these filters, or re-set them to take into account a younger sibling, then so can most children who can read.
As Dr Brook Magnanti points out here, online filters are imperfect; most screen for specific keywords. So while bird watching sites could be blocked for over-use of the word “tits”, sites with milder language but indecent content – or sites with predators intent on grooming children online with mild-sounding come-ons, could get through.
The other thing to consider is that family computers are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accessing inappropriate material online. My daughter is 17 months old and loves playing with my iPhone. She has no idea what she’s doing with it, but she will soon. She already understands how to flip through photographs with the flick of a finger.
Many parents limit access to certain websites on the family computer – but neglect to do the same for their iPads, Kindles, Wiis, other gaming devices, and lots of other contraptions I haven’t even heard of. Here is good advice on how to manage explicit online content at home on all of your devices.
While the Prime Minister’s heart is in the right place – I, too, worry about the easy access children have to pornography, and violence, generally, online – creating blocks is technologically impossible. This is a battle we cannot win. Web filtering does not work, and I fear the Government is giving parents false hope with this proposal.
As a parent, it is your responsibility to monitor your child’s use of the internet.
Protecting your child from an assault of inappropriate material online is important. But a big part of protection is arming them with the knowledge and confidence to tell you if they’ve seen something inappropriate. No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to police your child’s exposure to everything vile until he is 30. Your child will inevitably encounter pornography. If not online, he or she will come across someone’s magazines at a friend’s house – or yours – or will have a gander at page of one of our lovely national newspapers.
In It’s OK Not to Share, the journalist and mother Heather Shumaker describes beginning sex talks with her son when he was two, much to the horror of other mums in her circle. But if a child is old enough to ask a question, he’s old enough to get an honest response. You don’t want to give a young child more information than he wants, but you do want to be honest. This fosters a system of honesty between you and your child, so when he inevitably encounters confusing or worrying images online, he’ll come and ask you about them.
If your child feels comfortable talking to you about awkward issues, including sex and violence, he or she will be come to you.
In my pre-internet childhood, I got most of my early information on sex from my parents, and from a book that my mother, and my friend’s mother, sensibly kept on their shelves, within reach of their daughters. Our Bodies, Ourselves, the feminist book about women’s health and sexuality which was first published in 1971, offered our young, curious minds lots of positive and honest information about sexuality. Half technical guide, and half pre-blog experience sharing (with photographs that were far more informative than the cartoons in children’s sex books we had), the volume was an invaluable source for questions we had about sex, periods and body development.
Maybe instead of worrying so much about the bad things our children will encounter online – though, again, we should certainly monitor this closely – we should be worrying more about which positive sources of information we would like them to be exposed to. I would start with Our Bodies, Ourselves.
