There are special reasons why migrants don’t take adequate safeguards against abuses of the Internet. Migrant families bring their culture along with them to Australia. They expect the children to adopt their values and follow in their foot steps. Often it does not work in that way. Children quickly get acculturated into the values and lifestyle of their new land. There is a cultural gap between parents and children. Besides, many parents don’t understand the implications and processes of new technology or communication media.

Furthermore, the lifestyle of the parents themselves changes. Once they land into Australia , the local society indirectly or directly influences them to purchase a house and become more secure materially. To meet the demand of the financial institution and survival both parents must work. Many families eventually get caught into financial crises, such as the one gripping the country. They are unable to pay their mortgage loans. Their credit card interest keeps rising. Eventually, these pressures tend to swallow their holidays, leisure time, quality family time, and their ability to supervise their children’s education.

In this context, children prefer sit in front of the computer and explore more about new things after school hours. Since parents are working full time, and are away from their children for a long time, it becomes difficult to protect their children.

We must understand why children might feel very comfortable in front of the computer. Since Internet does not advise the children or try to discipline them, they prefer the Internet to the family. Children become parents in the internet world.

Several weeks ago, a friend persuaded one of my acquaintance’s12-year-old daughter to set up an account on MySpace. Although it was against family rules, under peer pressure, the daughter learned how to falsify her age and set up the account without her parent’s knowledge. When my acquaintance discovered the situation and saw the material being posted, she was horrified. In just two days, her daughter had been solicited by complete strangers. One posting was from a youth named “Rulez” who listed his age as “18” and was bragging about his sexual exploits. Another message was from a 30-year-old man.

My friend had heard from a professional associate that he was able to monitor his home computers remotely with an Internet child protection program. She immediately obtained the Internet child Protection software and managed to monitor and control the unsolicited Internet activities . Working parents must consider such options for managing and protecting children’s access to the Internet from the workplace at times they are away.

Part of the problems for migrant parents is that they do not have sufficient computer knowledge to handle such threats. I am really glad that the Australian Government , opposition parties, and the media understand the urgency of the situation and are willing to do something to protect our children . Bringing ISPs’ together to solve the problem is a promising strategy. However, it is going to be a challenge to implement this. Furthermore, installing content filtering systems at household computers is going to be another challenge. Most parents depend on the children for typing letters and email and do not take a direct role in monitoring computer use.

Moreover, parents are some time over protective of their children and become blind to reality. Even when they know something going wrong with the home internet use, they are not prepared to consider that their children might be receiving unwanted email. They find it difficult to believe that their children might be communicating with strangers.  Tell tale signs such as the following are ignored: they get unwanted emails addressed to them correctly; they find pop up of offensive material; they see popping of chat rooms with expletives.

One of my friends who is always proud of her daughter’s computer skill ignored such signs. He always boasts that his daughter does not have wrong friends .He says that she does not go to parties. He is proud that she knows better than adults when it comes to computers and internet activities. However, he found to his dismay that she was communicating with a pedophile online. Parents think they must trust their children, but they fail to understand that they have the responsibility to guide them as well. Such parents must recall their teen age if they want to understand their children better. They will remember that children are inquisitive, want to explore new things, challenge everything.

I would encourage parents to look around for effective solutions to protect their children while they are on the internet alone. Here are some steps to take:

1. Families must have internet child protection programs . Parents should learn themselves how to use the program and get maximum results out of it.

Internet filtering program should have a remote management feature--i.e., one of the tools available in the market that blocks the unsolicited activities and also sends parents an automatic message to inform them about what the child has attempted to access. For example, if a child is working on homework that requires them to access a site that is being blocked out due to gaming or chat rooms, the parent will be alerted. It is possible for the parent to consider the request and quickly grant permission from their office or from any browser interface if the site is acceptable.

2. Families should be able to protect their children’s privacy and warn them of potentially dangerous websites by verifying information about the site's ownership including its origin, date created, and any other pertinent information concerning the legitimacy of the web site. If any information is suspicious, they should warn their children.

3. Families should install programs that analyse, categorise and erase unwanted content from their computer. Most unwanted files are often in the form of hidden files or "cookies" and are difficult to identify and locate, and are almost impossible to delete. One may also have other files that are not necessarily objectionable that one may wish to delete, which may also be difficult to find. The program should solve these problems, and help free up valuable disk space on the hard drive and improve the performance of one’s PC.

4. Parents must play an important role spending quality time with the children. I understand the financial pressures for migrant families due to prior commitments, such as mortgage, interest-free loans, and credit card debts.  Spending quality family time is not an option. Parents must listen to the children first so that they can understand them better. If they are close to their children this way, the children will understand that the parents are implementing protective systems for their good.

Parents can create some group activities with children in front of the computer to explore the sites, help the children to use effective search engines, and use research tools. They can set house rules about what information their children can give out. Counselors advise families to place the computer with internet connection in a public area of the home rather than in a child's bedroom. Here parents need to be clear that the child’s  safety is more important than the child’s privacy.

By adopting these strategies, parents are not only protecting their children, you are helping build a healthy and secure society.

By: Nathan  (Sivanathan Sooriyakumar ),
Managing director of E-Cares System Solutions Pty Ltd ,
Australia.
http://www.ecares.com.au/ 




External Link:

Australian Government - Net Alert
Download or order free internet content filter : http://www.netalert.gov.au/filters.html

Click here to - Download internet content filter

Click here to - Order internet content filter

Note: You can also order a CD-ROM from our Helpline on 1800 880 176. (8am - 10pm in your local time zone, for callers in Australia only. Free call for landline calls, usual charges apply to mobiles and payphones.)