New Delhi: As the addiction to Internet grows among young children, the World Wide Web has exposed many young kids to a new form threat, the threat of pedophiles, who constantly hunt the Net for new victims.
Internet is a vast medium without any limits and regulations. Providing the luxury of instant access to global information, Internet is becoming popular among young kids with every passing day.
In fact more than television, it’s this interactive medium that has lately been attracting more and more children with its diverse features. And in the process, a large number of new generation children are today left exposed to a serious threat from pedophiles.
“Usually I surf at home, but If I want to chat I can go to my friend's place," says Raghav, a young child and regular Internet user.
Pedophiles stalk via chatrooms and spam-like pop-ups that flash explicit content. This year alone, the profiles of 7,000 pedophiles have been identified and blocked on a global community Internet portal.
In spite of several measures at fighting cyber crime, the world has failed to put a sound system in place to protect children from potential pedophiles
This is why parents need to make sure that their children have regulated access to the Net. “I would like to see what my son is doing whenever he is on the Net: Is he surfing, chatting and looking at sites that he is not supposed to,” Leena, a concerned parent, says.
Parents also need to tell their children that real world rules like "don’t talk to strangers" are applicable to the cyberspace as well. But the best way to ensure safety is generating proper awareness among the children.
Online community groups like Myspace and Orkut have also become the potential hunting ground for pedophiles in recent times.
As these communities grow in size, so does the danger and the difficulty in tracking the suspects.
“The basic idea is to build capacity among the law enforcement people to use the technology to understand how they can track people using the Internet and be able to investigate those cases," Rakesh Bakshi of Microsoft Legal & Corporate Affairs, points out.
Apart from the police, websites like Netnanny and Cyberpatrol too keep a tab any abuse of the Internet. New operating systems like the Windows Vista have handed over the digital reins to parents. For example, Windows Vista’s in-built security options include blocking select websites or access to programmes and time-bound Internet usage.
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