SpyBuddy® 2009

Recommended by the experts at Consumer Guide®,

SpyBuddy is the dependable computer monitoring solution

that will reveal what your child or employee is really doing

on the computer and internet..

INTERCONNECT Magazine

Managing Director:

Katrina Wilkins

Managing Editor:

Rachel Liu

Senior Editors:

Andrew Vargas

Sandra Haertling

Greg Nieslen

Lynn Spain

Design and Production Staff:

Rachel Liu

Andrew Vargas

Sandra Haertling

Greg Nielsen

Lynn Spain

Text material may be copied for incidental, noncommercial, church, or home use. All visual material used by permission. Cover art may be copied for incidental, noncommercial, church, or home use.

To subscribe: Enroll in Foundations of English Online Course taught by Katrina Wilkins, by visiting BYU Idaho online at www.byui.edu or by contacting the Brigham Young Univeristy Idaho Registrar's Office.

© 2009 BYU Idaho Foundations of English

In This Issue:Filters + Trust + Love=A Winning Combination In The Battle Of Internet Monitoring by Andrew Vargas

Safety In Trust: How Relationships Can Keep Internet Surfers Safe by Greg Nielsen

Safe Online? Parents Sound Off by Sandra Haertling

Filtering the Filth: In This Case, Spying Is Okay by Lynn Spain

Online Predator Protection and Pornography: What Parents Need to Know by Rachel Liu

by Andrew Vargas

Surfing, exploring, searching, traversing, wading, probing… just few among many adjectives that describe when children and adults alike go on the internet looking for information.

The questions that adults generally have when their children are on the internet are simple.

Are they safe? When they are out exploring, are they staying away from harm? Do they know what to do and what not to do? Do the children get the right information at the right time? Are they learning something that will be a positive aspect in their life?

After this flood of questions, then come even more. How do the parents monitor their children’s internet exploration? Do they sit behind them and watch them 100% of the time? Do they sit back and let the programs and software on the computer do all the work?

Should each child have a computer in their own room or should they have all computers in living rooms and hall ways? Should they block sites completely?

Should there be a time limit to each child’s circumstances that limit’s their internet exposure? What should parents know? How should they react?

What is to be done then about children and the internet? Some parents have gone to some extremes, for example:

“Williams grounded her daughter, has blocked MySpace at home and moved the computer into the family room. Parents, Jade says, are being overprotective and overreacting. But Williams is afraid kids who socialize online don't see the dangers” (Janet, 8d)

This reaction is one that most parents want to avoid at all costs and so they hit the other extreme of no filters and no opinion about their children and the internet. They feel that filters restrict knowledge and won’t give their children the opportunity to form opinions. They asked why not filter the web site specifically, allowing the kid to see the Declaration of Independence and not any of the other illegal content (Callister, 652).

Another method of dealing with the internet includes a combination of filters and time limits. Parents can schedule the internet availability during a time when they are home and are able to observe their children.

A final method of controlling children using the internet is to sit down and talk with them. Some parents give a really long drawn out talk about right and wrong, during which the child is either fast asleep or ignoring them. Then at the end when the parent asks if the child has understood, the child says yes without thinking anything of it and heads for the computer. In and of themselves, each idea has potential, but all lack in different aspects.

What is a better way to monitor a child’s internet surfing in a way that avoids offending them, especially teenagers? According to a survey conducted in recent years, “"a combination of technologies, in concert with parental oversight, education, social services, law enforcement, and sound policies by social-network sites and service providers, may assist in addressing specific problems that minors face online," according to a draft of the report reviewed by The Wall Street Journal” (Steel, B4).

Here is the key. Multiple aspects coming together to make a winning strategy. Parents are asked to set up filters and time limits.

A big part of a parent’s responsibility is to talk with their children and develop relationships that allow them to ask about their children’s activities on the internet. The sharing of information avoids confrontations when everyone knows what is going on. Children won’t feel like they are being spied on when parents are looking at browser histories to see where they went.

Talking with children also give the parents opportunities to learn. “When it comes to technology, you're in a position of your children having to teach you, Rheingold says. How often do kids have any power or authority? How often do parents come to them and listen to them? But it takes a parent with some courage to admit they don't know and want to learn” (Janet, 8d).

The teaching can strengthen the relationship between parent and child and will help prevent children from being disobedient. They will know that their parent cares for them and will want to do what that parent says because of that expression of love.

Another author adds this comment about good parenting and the problems of the internet: “Of course, in many families, these problems are solved with good parenting skills, and establishing trust and limits” (Mossberg, B1).

The limits and trust are big motivators in a child’s actions. Since not everyone is perfect, parents also need to add technological impairments for children who might get to curious.

Repetition indicates importance and here is another recommendation to teach and instruct children about the internet. Each time a parent is able to teach they have a chance to guide their children towards the right.

So with education, advising, filters, and other software, parents will be able to allow their children on the internet and not have to worry themselves silly. They will know that they have chosen the best strategy to monitor their children’s internet surfing.