Is internet dangerous for children

Heyall!!

a question just popped in my head ....

i am usually told by my bro to no use orkut as it is dangerous and even on yim many people are surprised i am allowed to use net at my age i mean 2 years ago they were

i mean whats so dangerous about net nobody will flame a lil girl or a kid would they??

In everysite they ask us if we are older then 13 why?

Well, it can be if it is used in the bad way.

i dont think so i mean a kid would know better than to go to adult sites and as for forums everybody is nice to children atleast to me they are and love how much you hae learnt here look how cool games you make

Well, sis I used it in a right way, went to polite sites and made sure I am treated nicely, but if a child went to a bad site where everybody treated him badly...um, not gonna tell.

while it's true that some kids are far more mature for their age, most children below 13 are easily taken advantage of, being rarely exposed to the nastiness of life and might unknowingly participate in fraudulent schemes. Also, since the internet is such a info portal, most of the info are also rather PG-13 (some even only for over 18s); while parents are supposed to be in charge of what their kids surf, they can't be around them 24/7, so it's also the responsibility of the general internet community to safeguard the below 13 children by restricting their movements on the internet.

Parents can always resrict such sites Ther is an option like that in internet options right?
and They can check their childs contacts in Yim and his/her mails ...

they could first examine the forums thier child wants to join ...

so even if they are not around they can know their child is safe

Everyone's made good points here so far. I believe that some Internet providers (like AOL) have an option that allows parents to restrict what sites their children can surf.

I do agree that parents should take responsibility in what their children do online. Some parents are more responsible about this than others although some parents are really busy because perhaps both parents are working or they're single-parents or some other situation pops up. Anyone who has access to the Internet nowadays is exposed to a whole lot of information-some good, some bad. And all sorts of people as well. So pretty much caution is needed.

As for forums, I do agree that parents should take a look at them before deciding whether their children should sign up for them. Some forums are all right while others have members who are not always polite to others. We just have to be careful out there.

Hmm yep it's a tricky one I guess parents should make sure they check the history so that they know what sites they are visiting without looking like they are spying

Personally, most things a parent can use to restrict a child, a resourceful child can get around. For reading a child's emails, all a child has to do is keep their password secret, for browsing sites, its only a couple clicks of a button and history and cookies are gone. There are new programs out like netnanny etc that parents can password, and those can restrict sites, but I'm sure there are ways around that as well, they weren't around when I was a kid, and even then, when my brother was younger my mom never installed one, so I don't know about those.

As for kids knowing better than to click on adult sites, usually those are the sites kids are most curious about. Most kids want to be seen as "mature" or "grown up" because they idolize older kids and adults, so going on adult sites is our generations version of sneaking into an R movie. If I was signing up for a forum, was 12, and it said "click this if you are 13, or this if you aren't" I'd click 13, as that's obviously the answer they are looking for.

Its the same as movie ratings, or game ratings. Rarely are those looked at, if a kid wants an 18+ game, they ask their parents to buy it, or depending on the store, buy it themselves. I've rarely seen parents that actually follow that stuff, and I can't imagine how kids so sheltered they never saw anything rated 13 or 18 until they actually got to that age would turn out.

Is the internet dangerous for children? Barely. If a 12 year old sees an adult site, or even something terrible like those shock sites I won't mention here, are they going to be hurt? No. They might be confused, interested, or disgusted, but they'll get over it, kids aren't made of glass.

The ONLY way the internet is dangerous, is if some kid decides to go meet their chatroom friend in a secluded location, and thats just our generations version of the van man with candy.