Protecting Children / Teens from Pornography on the Internet

---------------------------What Parents Should Consider about YouTube

Using Parental Internet Control Software and Its Limitations
Educating Children and Teens

YouTube features the good, the bad and the ugly. It features valuable information videos, entertainment spanning the globe, and it is a favorite of teens. It also features every type of pornography, from the mild to the raunchy, as well as much information-propaganda, deception and misinformation on serious subjects, including religion, and hate-site oriented material.

Some young teens spend long hours watching YouTube and cable television videos and listening to music after school at the expense of doing homework or doing quality homework.

Many YouTube videos have value and are legitimate, at the same time, YouTube needs to be used judiciously, and the use of YouTube by teens should be monitored by parents and guardians.

Music videos are a first-place stop for teens and children on YouTube. In addition to the home, the public library is accessed by young children (as young as 6 years old, without parental supervision. Close-to pornographic music videos of your child's favorite music-stars is easily accessible at home or the library, so parents need to make a conscious decision about what videos they will allow their children and teens (at home) to view.

Children Need to Be Educated by Parents on Internet Safety

Educating and instructing children and teens to make wise choices is also needed, in addition to restrictions on your home computer, because your teen will have access to the computer at other places besides at home. While most public schools have good filtering software for the Internet use, not all do.

Semi-pornographic (and pornographic) images are downloaded by pre-teen boys in school from Google images, which also most images in some public school internet filtering systems. So again, educating, teaching and training your child is of importance. You can't +assume that the school that your child attends is on top of things, because while some schools are, some are not yet fully monitoring the use of the Internet of children in school.

Parents then, should educate themselves about internet safety, and train their children as well.

Internet Safety - What Parental Internet Filtering Software Does and Doesn't Do

Internet filtering software is that it blocks about 97% of pornography on the Internet, which means that for a child or youth who is determined about finding pornography on the Internet, including YouTube, he will be able to find it, enough gets through, but it wouldn't necessarily be easy, and there would be enough blocks so that an addictive, consumptive mode would not be facilitated. So, even without monitoring, internet filtering sets up an effective barrier.

An added element of safety for children and teens is that internet monitoring software allows parents to know what sites and what searches their child or teen is making on the Internet and YouTube. A weekly or monthly report is available for parents, which can be emailed to the parent if the parent or computer administrator chooses that option.

This gives the parent peace of mind that the home computer is not being misused by anyone in the household and alert the parent, or even spouse, of any dangerous trends.

Adult Internet Safety - Internet Control Software as an Aid in Breaking Free from Home Internet Pornography Addiction

While we frequently speak of "parental" internet control software, the major share of consumptive pornography users on the internet are adults, many of whom are married. Some adults, out of mutual agreement, might set up the home computers and laptop with control software as a protective measure, or as one measure to break free or to help one's spouse break free from addictive pornography viewing.

Lock the door and throw away the key as it were, allow the spouse to keep the passcode to the software, rather than the addicted mate. Purchased software is effective, but free internet control software is also effective when you need only one setting, one user, on one individual user. (K9 is the free software referred to here).

What Percentage of Pornography do Parental Internet Filtering Software Programs Actually Block?

A footnote on YouTube - The AYCNP tested SafeEyes and bSecure as well as the free internet control software K9 for pornography block. SafeEyes and bSecure blocked, about what is quoted in more scientifically-oriented testing, 97% of pornographic videos on YouTube. There were still some pornographic videos that came through, sometimes videos listed first in the search.

Additionally, some of, what might be considered soft-porn depending on your viewpoint, also came through the filter, that is erotic kissing instruction or demonstration, homosexual kissing or activity, none of it hard-core, but definitely designed to be erotic and sexually stimulating or enticing. Most were blocked from the first page of a YouTube search, but some came through. (2 out of 26 videos - 7% - under girls kissing - that is lesbian - soft-porn, of a first-page YouTube search, got through the filter, which is typical of internet filtering software. 93% of this soft-porn search was blocked.

In the case of bSecure, the percentage is even less, because bSecure uses only the YouTube safe mode for blocking pornography, whereas SafeEyes adds another layer of filtering.)

So you get the idea of what an internet filtering software program can and does not block. The exception to this was K9, which in its moderate mode blocks YouTube altogether as well as Google images. Any internet filtering software can be used to block specific sites, including YouTube, very simply adding a site to the "banned" or "not allowed" list.

If you have any problem blocking specific sites, some sites purposely use bypass interceptors for that purpose, call the technical assistance, which we did for certain sites, and both SafeEyes and bSecure have good technicians, who up to this point, handled promptly any issues in fine-tuning our use of the software.

A free program like K9, is effective, but it doesn't provide the emailed version of a parental report, which some parents might find helpful. In previous versions of SafeEyes, which did not provide this feature, we found that even though we had intentions to monitor internet use with a teen, we didn't go on site to a report for weeks at a time, even though we it would have been beneficial to do so. So, for some parents, the feature of a regular emailed report is of some value.

YouTube is the third most heavily trafficked website in the world, behind Google, Yahoo and MySpace....

"Internet filtering is a useful tool for shielding children from online material they shouldn't see, but being too restrictive can backfire. There is no reason to keep kids away from every YouTube video just because some of them are off-color or otherwise undesirable," said CEO Aaron Kenny. --From producers of Safe Eyes internet filtering software.

Conclusion of Protecting Children / Teens from Pornography on the Internet
------------What Parents Should Consider about Youtube

You can't block all pornography on the Internet. This is true at home and at school. It is important that parents and educators, including technology teachers in public schools, to educate children and teens in this area. The earlier a child is exposed to pornography, the more likely that he or she can become addicted, and the harder it may be to break free.

Parents and educators should

1. Protect children and teens from exposure to pornography

2. Educate children and teens on safe internet use and the dangers of pornography

3.Keep communication lines with children and teens open, not overreacting of they get into some type of trouble, and encouraging them to immediately speak with the parent if they see anything disturbing or pornographic content on the internet or elsewhere.

Parents should realize that a significant percentage of music videos on YouTube and common cable television music video stations are semi-pornographic, many of which highlight sexuality or sex, and some of which take it a step farther, including some music videos from the most popular current music idols.

Control settings on the television, in addition to the computer is wise, making the television child/teen safe, blocking X, R and even PG14 or PG13 content, depending no the individual preferences of the parent. Children do get hooked on watching television programs that focus on sex and sexuality from pre-teen years, sometime without the parents knowledge, which is not healthy for a pre-teen or teen. The television, music videos and pornography, portray women as sex-objects, which is not a healthy way to view women and which can contribute to unsuccessful marital relationship later in life.

Parents needs to give their children and teens every opportunity to enter into married life with a "clean slate," free from the gross misconceptions of sex that the media exploits, and the false view of sex that some children and many teens absorb from pornography.

Pages Related to Effects of Pornography

THE EFFECTS OF PORNOGRAPHY ON INDIVIDUALS, MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND COMMUNITY, Patrick F. Fagan, Ph.D. Effects of Pornography - Summary, Solutions

How Pornography Effects Children

How to Teach Your Child to Use the Internet Wisely

Reviews of the Best Parental Internet Filtering Software

YouTube and Teens Parental Internet Software

Free Parental Internet Filtering Software - How Good is it?

Child Online Safety U.S. Government information page, from Carnegie Mellon University.

Cyber Bullying - Parents: What parents can do