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No Computers

To keep children safe, turn interactivity off.

By Inland Empire FamilyPublished: April, 2006

Recent revelations about online sexual predators in both the New York Times and “Oprah” have prompted OC Family Magazine to strongly recommend that parents severely limit interactive computer use by their children.

The Times, in a story that broke in December, and Oprah Winfrey, who last month followed the story of a teen sucked into the underworld of predators, focused on one of the most effective ways to inappropriately reach children through webcams. The devices are inexpensive video cameras that connect to the Internet.

In the story, and, last month with Oprah, 19-year-old Justin told his personal tale of innocently setting up a computer-accessible webcam at age 13 in an effort to meet teen friends. Instead, predators descended, prompting years-long relationships and personal contact with adults, who convinced him to, at first, disrobe, and later commit sex acts for their pleasure.

Both the newspaper and Oprah reported that the teen’s mom was unaware that he was becoming an Internet commodity. He worked out of his bedroom, with the door closed. At one point, according to the reports, he had 1,000 adult pedophiles paying monthly fees for Justin to do multiple acts, including sex with prostitutes. The customers were diverse. The Times reporter, Kurt Eichenwald, found that of 1,500 customers of Justin (he tracked the identifications of 300), some were pediatricians, teachers and counselors.

OC Family Magazine in light of this story and the fact that parents, who used to worry about predators coming to the door and now need to worry about them coming through the computer screen has set recommended guidelines for home use:
   •    All computers need to be in an open area where family members typically congregate. No computers are allowed in bedrooms, including brief Wi-Fi usage.

   •    Don’t expect child protection software to work. In most cases, your child knows much more than you about computers, making what seems like a safety measure in fact ineffective.

   •    No interactivity is allowed without direct parental participation. This means:
   ◦    No instant messaging.
   ◦    No separate domain name.
   ◦    No e-mail except for the one family account.
   ◦    No online accounts to send or receive money.
   ◦    No online chatrooms or social networks such as MySpace.com
   ◦    No interative accessories, such as webcams.

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