Parents, children and social networks

These days, many kids draw little distinction between real life and online life. They may use social websites designed for children such as Webkinz or Club Penguin, or social websites designed for adults such as Windows Live Spaces, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and others. Whatever they're doing, they should understand that many of these web pages can be viewed by anyone with access to the Internet.

Bill Gates warns: Protect Our Children

 „Protecting our children. The Internet can revolutionize education, giving children the opportunity to indulge their intellectual curiosity and explore their world. But while it helps them to learn about dinosaurs or world history, it can also expose them to obscene, violent or inappropriate content. And since the Internet is an unregulated global medium, it is hard to "censor" in any traditional way. The private sector has already made great strides in giving parents and teachers more control over what children can see and do on the Internet, through filtering software that blocks access to objectionable Web sites; industry standards such as the still-evolving Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS) that enable helpful rating systems; and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that voluntarily regulate the activities of their customers. Government has also played a part, encouraging the growth of the market for child-safety tools, and increasing law enforcement's role in policing and prosecuting online predators. So far, the issue of protecting children on the Internet has served as an excellent example of how governments and the private sector can work together to tackle problems on the Internet.”