~children~

~illegal material~

~political volatile material~

~unsavoury material~

~children~

• children are at the cutting edge of world wide web use and are in most cases more adept at using computers than their parents.

• because of this skill they can often view things that their parents don't know anything about such as hardcore pornography.

• children are not responsible enough to restrict their viewing to "safe sites" even if a warning or legal disclaimer is displayed prior to entering the site.

• furthermore, thanks to the anonymity of the web there is little to stop a youngster posing as a consenting adult.

• software is available that filters web content according to key words or by consulting a database of site ratings or "unsafe sites".

• both systems are flawed:
  • those that use keyword filters frequently block safe sites because words such as cock, tit, ass, fanny and bottom have double meanings.
  • those that use a list or database either require staff to rate sites responsibly or rely on content providers to rate themselves.

   

• there is another problematic aspect of children surfing the web; some porography providers use seemingly innocuous web names as an irony, however, children may stumble across these sites innocently (bambi.com)