Safe Internet Alliance Panel - Confronting Internet Risks Today

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The Safe Internet Alliance is hosting a panel discussion today (in about 15 minutes, actually) called the "Framework for a Safe Internet." The conference will host a veritable who's who of Internet moguls--representing giants like Yahoo, Verizon, Microsoft, and AOL--in a series of panels each focused on maintaining a safe Internet for ourselves and our children. Marty Schultz, Chief Safety Officer at McGruff SafeGuard, is also preparing to share today on a panel about confronting Internet risks today. I thought I'd share with our readers a sneak peak at the discussion to ensue in a few hours.

The bottom line: the world is a dangerous place. Ergo, the Internet is a dangerous place. It's simple logic. Unfortunately, however, it's not always so simple to see. The dangers in this world that we as parents grew up with are still there--everything from scraped knees to busy streets, and even ill-willed perpetrators and pedophiles. So, as your child rests comfortably in a desk chair staring at a computer, isn't he or she protected? No.

Here is the mental shift we as parents must make: logging on is tantamount to heading out. Your child, though physically present in your home, is socially traveling the world and encountering a host of new, and also not-so-new dangers. The risks have changed, but the principal is unchanged: the world is dangerous. We must protect our children!

But don't the ISP's, social network policies, and federal regulations keep the internet relatively safe for my kid? They try. But, at a park near a busy street, do you trust the town's police force to keep your kid from darting into traffic? No. They post signs, "children at play," and the like--but ultimately, the role of protecting the next generation falls squarely on the parents.

The only tried-and-true method for keeping kids safe is for parents to accept their responsibility to know what their kids are doing. The only way to do this online is for parents to know not just where their children go online, but what they do when they get there, what they talk about, and to whom they talk. If your child is at the park, that seems safe enough. But if they're over by the bushes talking to the shadowy figure with an eerie look to him--you just might want to know that. You just might need to step in and protect your innocent child from the dangers he or she might not yet understand.

At McGruff SafeGuard, protecting children online is our first objective. If it means speaking at a thousand panels just like today's, we'll be there. We also want to empower every parent to do their part. Learn about our free internet monitoring tool and consider downloading it today.

Labels: internet safety, McGruff Safeguard, monitoring, online parenting, Safe Internet Alliance