Contributed Articles
CHILDREN ON INTERNET: HOW COULD THEY BE SAFE BENEFICIARIES?
By Amanuel Tesfay
Aug 7, 2008, 9:29am

The Internet has revolutionized the information age. All the geographical and other barriers have been breached. The youth today are a step ahead in their abilities to draw information, create information and interact with peers across the globe. While exciting at one end, however, challenges have also appeared for society at large. Children today have easy access to pornographic and other objectionable sites.

The Internet offers tremendous benefits to children, and some very real dangers. Unfortunately, the worst types of pornography are invading homes, libraries, and schools via the Internet. Child pornography, obscenity and harmful contents are easily and freely accessible to children who have unrestricted access to the Internet and online services. These sites could be obstacles to children’s educational benefits. Children may also lose their own cultural and social values. Different attempts have been made to minimize such harmful impacts of the Internet. But they have not yet been fully successful.

Different countries have different mechanisms to tackle the harmful effects of Internet. Some countries strive to create awareness among their own children about the harmful sites, while others make age restriction. Similar to other countries, Eritrea also is taking measures to tackle the negative impact of Internet on children. The government had adopted a law that requires every Internet café to prohibit users from opening objectionable sites. This is one step in minimizing the harmful impacts of the Internet. But it needs implementation and follows up.

In almost all Internet cafes found in Eritrea, you see a notice ‘browsing pornographic sites is prohibited’. It is written on the wall above the Internet, so that users can see it easily and avoid opening that website. Though it is written to warn any user, its targets are children, as they are more open to harmful things because of their age. Who would be responsible for this? The children theselves? The parents or the society?

Protection of children should not depend solely on a child's self discipline. Parental guidance of children would be the most effective way to keep a check on child’s access to porn on the Internet. Browsing the Net together with children can be helpful in this aspect. Further, a close watch on the child's favorite browsing areas and tastes would make the guidance more effective.

In many nations, Internet services are unregulated. This unregulated nature of the Internet makes it more difficult to keep harmful materials out of the reach of children. This leads children to practice these harmful materials easily. This does not mean that children should not be the beneficiaries of Internet technologies because it leads to harmful impacts. Rather, they should strictly be protected from misusing it.

The worst side of pornography is that it impacts culture negatively. It turns citizens away from their own culture and values. As long as culture is considered as the cornerstone for national cohesion, cultural imperialism can not impact the national solidarity of the targeted nation. Therefore, it is recommended that the government along with the parents should play a role in protecting to protect the national culture by regulating Internet services.

In sum, due to the unregulated nature of the Internet, children with unrestricted Internet access can be exposed to sexually explicit materials. Protecting children from pornography may go beyond the question of how a society should behave responsibly in protecting the innocent minds and hearts of children. Therefore, a shared responsibility between the community and the technology industry is necessary to bring the nation’s children safely into the important frontier of cyberspace.

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