internet security initiative for wealthy young westerners.

international | sci-tech | other press Monday January 31, 2005 11:52 by pandabear

"i want to know where you going, who you're seeing how long you'll be out. no buts. ok?"

Save The Children is a global practising non governmental organisation based in the USA.

It works to safeguard the rights of the child globally.

Challenges which are very different from the tsunami zone of SE Asia, to Mozambique, to Darfur, to Brazil, children face different threats from desiese, war, natural disaster etc.,

Save the Children estimates that 14.5% of children in North America and Europe almost of all of whom can read and write and have got their vaccines and many of whom are guaranteed minimum levels of nutrition have arranged to meet a stranger through the internet. Often the stranger is not another kid, its an adult even if not a bogeyman michael jackson type, it could just be a sci tech war recruiter in a gamesroom.

Scary stuff.

Accordingly Panda software one of the world's leading internet security providers, and builders of end user firewall systems and intrusion monitoring and prevention and tracking services and so on, have today introduced a new package which offers parents in the first world a means to supervise the internet activity of their offspring at low cost.

This is what they have to say to the buyers of new technology who for the most part don't read indymedia, don't know a binary code from a spiders web, and think squatters are dirty parasites-

"Children explore the Internet with the same curiosity as they discover the rest of the world. If you are interested in what your children read or buy and the friends they make in the outside world, why don’t you do the same with the Internet?
Panda Software wants to help you to protect them from the threats lurking in the Internet, because the safety of your children is not child’s play.


Accurate data on the impact of the Internet on children. Open your eyes to reality!

Virtual innocence?

Many public bodies, NGOs and private companies around the world are dedicating resources to determining the impact of the Internet on young people and how to protect them from its harmful effects. One such group is the Save the Children organization, which has worked with us to produce these pages. Open your eyes to reality, your children could be in danger!

1. 25 percent of five-year olds use the Internet.
As early as 2001, 25 percent of five-year olds in the USA used the Internet. This figure reached 75 percent for children between 15 and 17-years old. Surprising data, revealed by the “Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents in 2001” study carried out by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and which reflects the early age at which children begin to use the Internet, and the role that the Web plays in the lives of adolescents.

2. In 2004 more children used the Internet than adults.
“Children have overtaken adults in terms of average access to the Internet”. This is one of the conclusions of the Association for the Research of Communication Media after carrying out in 2004 the “Sixth AIMC survey of Internet users”. Specific data points to the fact that children between 8 and 13-years old make up half of the total number of Internet users. Most of them access the Web from home and the most frequent activities are browsing, chatting and playing games online.

3. 44 percent of children have felt sexually harassed on the Internet.
According to the “Child security and use of the Internet by minors” survey, published in Spain by the Child Protection Agency in 2002, 44 percent of minors that use the Internet regularly have felt sexually harassed at one time and 11 percent admitted having encountered this experience on several occasions. In other cases, the offense may take the form of insults from other Internet users or unsolicited mail with offensive content.

Worryingly, 14.5 percent of children in the survey had arranged a meeting with a stranger via the Internet and 8 percent had done so on more than one occasion. Ten percent of these attended on their own and 7 percent had not even told anyone that they were going to meet someone.

4. 28 percent of minors visit pornographic web pages.
According to the survey in the previous section, 19 percent of children access pornographic pages at some time or other and another nine percent do so frequently. This same survey also revealed a series of data about children accessing dangerous content:

* Children accessing pages with violent content: 38%
* Children accessing pages with racist/xenophobic content: 16%
* Children entering chat sessions about sex: 26%

5. 50% of children use the Internet alone.

Discover the threats lurking in the Internet and their consequences. Don't leave your children to face the dangers alone!


Use these simple tips to avoid the threats hiding in the Internet. Share them with your children!


1. What they should never have seen...
The curious nature of children could lead them to degrading, racist, discriminative, sexual, violent... content (text and images) or to sites that encourage them to carry out activities that put their psychological or physical integrity at risk.

2. Who they should never have met...
Unfortunately, there have already been quite a few cases of pedophiles passing themselves off as other children or fantasy characters to gain the confidence of children in order to have obscene or openly sexual conversions with them or even arrange to meet them face-to-face.

3. What they should never have done...
Email messages, forums or chats could convince, trick or even coerce children into committing all types of crimes both inside and outside the Internet.

4. What they should never have bought...
If your children have access to your bank details or credit card number, they can buy almost anything via the Internet, from a poster to a luxury car, or contract services ranging from online games to a trip around the world.

5. What they should never have downloaded...
Many websites, email messages and file sharing programs allow users to download all types of music, games, documents, etc. However, although they may appear harmless, many of them hide viruses or programs that infect computers or open the door to hackers, who could then steal confidential data, among other things.


Try the maximum protection for your children in their Internet voyages. Free for 3 months!


Discover the websites that will help you and your children to get the most out of the Internet. Visit them to better protect your children!" If you can't be arsed, panda will send you a list you can get your head around, and will give you all this for free for three months in the full knowledge that most of its customers can well afford the charges and they're doing quite a lot of good work on corporate responsibility and ethical development with the profits accrued by the pandabear stock holders.
- errr no you can't buy panda stock on nasdaq.
sorry.
**************************************
So there sin é.
all together now,
in each society we face different challenges.
united in our diversity of response, we can move to a better future, and it starts with the kids of today and tomorrow. If you think throwing stubborn doves off a balcony helps, you've got the best of blessings and fanatical devotion ;-)

http://www.pandasoftware.com