The Internet
What parents should know when their kids go online.
Weighing the Risk
Clearly the Internet is an amazing learning tool. Children who surf the Web are exposed to any number of resources they’d never see otherwise. A couple of years ago, kids could watch a direct feed from the space probe. They can do research online, or converse with pen pals from all over the world.
But there are also real risks online. One real problem that’s been fueled by the Internet is the increased visibility of hate propaganda. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s winter 2000 “Intelligence Report” found that “the number of hate sites on the Internet in early 2000 rose to 305 from 254 a year earlier.” Many hate groups specifically target young people, and their hateful messages can have a powerful influence. Kids and parents need to learn to surf smart.
Another less common, but real, risk is that predators will learn children’s identities and interests and attempt to meet them in the real world.
Targeting Kids
Children who explore the Internet, whether visiting Web sites, reading e-mail messages, or “conversing” in chat rooms, run the risk of encountering this propaganda. Using simple search tools, young Internet users can easily find hate propaganda. They may also stumble on it inadvertently. A child searching for an activity page might find him or herself at a white supremacist site devoted to children, complete with coloring pages and crossword puzzles.
Hate messages, from subtle to heavy-handed, are aimed at influencing attitudes and behavior. Misleading sites try to persuade children to believe that supremacism and other hateful beliefs are on the rise. At the extreme, promoters of hate use the Internet to recruit new, young members. It’s easy to join, and hate groups are increasingly savvy marketers. There are online membership forms at several hate sites. It’s also simple to use the Internet to order books, CDs, jewelry, and other items with hateful messages. Some hate sites offer links to bomb-making pages, which could potentially contribute to violent actions.
Hate Messages
What Parents Can Do
Regulation of speech on the Internet by the international community, or by any one government, would be virtually impossible, both technologically and legally. In the United States, for example, the First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees the right of freedom of speech to all citizens, including the vast majority of extremist Web sites that disseminate racist or anti-Semitic propaganda. (The First Amendment does not protect speech that threatens or harasses specific people, or speech that libels individuals or organizations by name.)
But where legislative bodies are ineffectual, you may not be. By getting involved in, and informed about, your children’s Internet explorations, you can help ensure that their online explorations are positive learning experiences; not potential lessons in hate and bigotry.
Communicate With Your Kids
Parents need to help their children deal with online hate through discussion and education. Parents should become active participants in their children’s Internet experiences. Some ways to achieve this include:
- Talk to your kids about what they are seeing on the Internet
- Encourage your children to ask questions about material they do not understand
- Explore various Internet sites with your children
- Pay attention to the sites your children are exploring (something as simple as having the computer in an open area, or facing an open door, can give you information without prying)
- Educate yourself about hate on the Internet, either by surfing the Web yourself, or by reading publications such as Anti-Defamation League’s “Poisoning the Web”
- Ask your Internet provider about safeguards to protect children from encountering hate online (many major Internet companies and nonprofit organizations are offering such services)
- Install the ADL HateFilter on your home computer (the HateFilter protects children by blocking access to Web sites that advocate hate and violence based on race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or other “differences”)
- Inform responsible authorities such as your online service provider about threatening, hateful, or violent messages they find online
What Children Can Do
If you have taught your children the basics of respect for all people and critical media skills, you have gone a long way toward protecting them against the potential risks of hate speech online. Following are further tips that will protect your kids wherever they surf:
- Do not give out your home address, telephone number, or school name without asking a parent, and never share personal information in, for example, a chat room or newsgroup, or on a message board
- Do not accept e-mails, files or URLs from strangers
- Keep your passwords a secret; don’t even tell your best friend
- If you see any threatening or bad language online, report it to a parent, librarian, or teacher
- If you feel unsafe or uncomfortable, notify your parents, librarian, or a teacher, and leave the chat room or Web site
- Do not agree to meet someone in person without asking a parent first
Web Site Evaluation Form
Print and use this Web site evaluation form to help you and your kids analyze the Web sites you visit. You can use the same or adapted questions with your children, depending on their ages and level of computer sophistication. Complete the evaluation as completely as you can. If you cannot answer a question, write “no information” or “not applicable” on the line.
[see “EvaluatingWebSites.pdf”, acrobat reader file]
A Tool for Good
The Internet is a powerful technological tool that encourages instant communication between people — with similarities as well as differences — throughout the world. Because of its capabilities, the Internet can help to educate people and promote messages of understanding and respect that bring us all closer together.
In order for the Internet to safely and successfully live up to its potential, we must stay involved in and remain informed about our children’s ventures onto the World Wide Web, so that we may help ensure that these explorations are positive learning experiences, not lessons in hatred and bigotry.
Internet Resources
The following Web sites offer some informative places to start exploring the Web with your child:
- ADL (Anti-Defamation League)
- Center for the Prevention of School Violence
- Children’s Defense Fund
- Family.com
- Family Education Company
- Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
- Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc.
- Look Smart Categories
- (Look under the Personal category, and click on Family.)
- National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
- National Conference for Community and Justice
- National Congress of American Indians
- National Council of La Raza
- National Italian American Foundation
- National PTA
- National School Safety Center (NSSC)
- National Urban League
- Parents Helping Parents
- Stand for Children
- Teaching Tolerance
- United States Department of Justice
Web site that reprints articles from the magazine Parent and Child published by Scholastic, Inc.
