Protecting Children from Inappropriate Internet Images

Most internet users are familiar with the ease of going to the wrong site or having inappropriate pop-up advertising appear on the monitor screen. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is reporting a high exposure rate of inappropriate images for children:

“Three out of four children have seen images on the internet that disturbed them, an NSPCC poll suggests.

The charity is renewing its call for computer manufacturers and retailers to install security to stop children finding violent or sexual content.”

link: Web content ‘disturbing children’

The computer manufacturers are reluctant to install any such filtering software. It can interfere with legitimate searches. For example, a filter can prevent searches for “breast cancer”. The rate of complaint about the computer not working properly would be astronomically high.

There are third party software programs if parents are concerned about what the child sees on the internet. However, the majority of parents will not bother. Computer security people will point out that there is a staggering number of people who do not maintain basic computer security. An example of this is having an antivirus program and keeping security definitions up to date. Additional pre-installed software as the NSPCC suggest is unlikely to happen, especially since it would increase costs to the consumer. And, most likely, it would be a program that the consumer would disable.

Catherine Forsythe