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Pat McKenna
This truly is the Holy Grail and the eternal graveyard of digital age arguments that hits the epicenter, and often the flashpoint between a parent and child, but it is the single most important factor in the personal security of a child interacting on a computer and it is a nugget that will keep popping up in any column discussing the protection of children in computing.
There are several perspectives from which to look at the security of a child in computing. A parent will see it from a particular angle, as will a child from another. A policeman, a lawyer, a politician, a social worker, a doctor or nurse, a computer security professional, a computer hacker, a disaffected or estranged husband playing away, a teenager trawling cyber space for sex with another teenager, an adult seeking inappropriate knowledge of a child, a pedophile: All with a perspective on the security of a child.
And right on queue cometh the ingredients that light up this galaxy of perspectives: Child protection as a concept cannot be reliant upon parents because too often children are abused by some parents; many teenagers will resist a parent getting too close to the privacy of their personal cyber space; many parents don’t know enough about computing trends to effectively manage the digital affairs of their children.
I know that this comment is going to upset many people who strive hard to maintain great relationships with their children as I do myself, but in my world of computer security I come across these issues time and time again.
How often do you hear politicians, judges and safety experts rattle and hum the tune that says it is up to parents to ensure the safety of their children when they use a computer? This was great when children got their entertainment from television but in the digital world, parents are often ill equipped to match the knowledge of their children.
And yet this concept of parental responsibility is key to the protection of children using computers. As a parent you must learn to take the measures that are within your remit.
I have a very effective formula for getting teenagers to listen and ‘get’ the reasons why it is necessary to protect themselves and why we parents might take a more than passing interest in their protection. I simply discuss the core issues that are a factor in their security: the presence of people who consume (in particular child) porn; why and how children can be hacked; the threat of data protection lapses; the elements of proximity and anonymity that allow people with an unhealthy or unlawful interest in children to get too close through the internet.
This topic may be many things but it will never be boring.
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About the Author: Pat McKenna is an IT Security Consultant specializing in Child Safe Computing through ChildWatch.ie.
