Fuente : Panda Sotware
http://www.pandasoftware.es

Campaign "Children and the Internet: don't let them talk to strangers"

One in ten children that use chatrooms has been harassed by pedophiles

/noticias.info/ As part of the campaign “Children and the Internet: don’t let them talk to strangers” -available at: http://www.defendyourchild.com/ and http://www.menorenlared.com/- Panda Software is informing parents and carers about the risk of children being approached by pedophiles when they access the Internet.

Internet has become a perfect means for committing all types of crimes that are not restricted to this virtual environment, but can often have consequences in the outside world. Fraud, sexual abuse, even murders, have been plotted and carried out via the Internet. However, those who seem to have found an excellent tool for carrying out their activities are pedophiles, i.e., people who feel sexually attracted to children and teenagers.

The figures are startling: 44 percent of minors that regularly use the Internet have felt sexually harassed on the Internet at sometime and 11 percent said that they have fallen into this situation on several occassions1. What’s more, one in five children that use chatrooms has been harassed by pedophiles2.

A pedophile that connects to the Internet can visit websites that contain pornographic images of children -an activity that is punishable by law in almost every country in the world-. However, many of them go much further and try to arrange meeting with children in the outside world.

News often appears in the media related to pedophilia or child pornography. In fact, just a few days ago, the Spanish police arrested 18 members of a pedophile ring that operated in several countries, distributing images of them abusing of children. The first clue came from the mother of a 12-year old boy, who reported that her son had been approached by a person in a chat who offered him money and presents in exchange for sexual relations3. However, this is not the only case. In 2001, an international network for distributing child pornography online was broken up. The operation resulted in 130 arrests in several countries4. In 2002, another 50 pedophiles that operated in 20 US states 5 were taken into custody. These figures demonstrate that this is a real threat that is permanently lying in wait for children and therefore, parents and carers must be well aware of this situation in order to adopt appropriate measures.


How pedophiles attack through the Internet

Pedophiles use many different methods to contact minors in the Internet. Below is a description of the most common:

- Chats: Chats are written conversations held over the Internet in real time. One of the most widely used tactics is for pedophiles to pass themselves off as a user around the same age and with the same interests as the child. By doing this they try win over their confidence so that the child agrees to meet them face-to-face, which can have extremely serious consequences. What’s more, each conversation could allow the delinquent to gather enough personal data about the child to find them.

- Instant messaging: Some pedophiles opt to contact potential victims directly using this tool. The first step involves getting the email address or other personal data about the child, such as their first name, which they could use to find the child through one of the instant messaging programs available. After establishing contact, the delinquent uses the same tactics as those used in chats. This system also allows files to be sent, which would allow pedophiles to backup their fake identity using photographs, making everything seem more realistic.

- Computer viruses: Pedophiles try to drop malicious code, usually Trojans, on the child’s computer. These are usually designed to steal data and send it directly to the delinquents so that they can find out the address and interests of the child or even steal photographs or personal documents.


How to combat pedophiles in the Internet

It is almost impossible to prevent possible pedophiles from approaching children in chatrooms, therefore, in order to prevent these attempts from being successful, it is essential to teach and train children. Children need to be taught the tactics these delinquents use, and understand that if in doubt, they should ask an adult for advice. It is extremely important to establish rules that the child must follow when connecting to the Internet. These should include the following:

- Never give any personal details over the Internet, even to friends in chats that they have contacted many times.

- Never run any files received via email or instant messaging, and don’t send them to friends or acquaintances.

- Never arrange to meet anyone over the Internet without telling your parents, and above all, never go to a meeting proposed by another user.

- Never reply to emails from anonymous or unknown senders and inform parents about any of these messages received.


Apart from following these rules, it is vital to install appropriate security tools on the computer. The most important tools for protecting children in the Internet are the following:

- An acclaimed and updated antivirus program to prevent malicious code that could be sent by a pedophile from entering the computer.

- A personal firewall to prevent attacks on unprotected ports that allow confidential data to be stolen from the computer.

- Anti-spam protection that is capable of detecting any email message with violent or obscene content.

- A parental control system that allows parents and carers to restrict access to websites with inappropriate content for children and teenagers.

You can find more information about the threats to children in the Internet on the website of the campaign: “Children and the Internet: don’t let them talk to strangers” (http://www.defendyourchild.com/ and http://www.menorenlared.com/). This Panda Software initiative aims to raise parent’s awareness of the dangers faced by their children when they surf the Net without supervision.


As part of the campaign, Panda Software has made Platinum Internet Security 2005 available to parents with three months’ free services. This can be downloaded from: http://www.defendyourchild.com/. This powerful and internationally acclaimed anti-malware solution provides parents and carers with an effective tool to guarantee the safety of their children when they connect to the Internet. As well as outstanding malware technologies, which detect and eliminate all types of viruses, spyware, adware, spam, dialers or jokes, it also incorporates a personal firewall and parental control. What’s more, its TruPreventTM Technologies are capable of detecting attacks from unknown viruses and intruders.

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1 Seguridad infantil y costumbres de los menores en Internet. Defensor del Menor. 2002.

2 Detective Chief Superintendent Keith Akerman, Telegraph.co.uk, 2002.

3 Efe Agency, 2005.

4 Reuters Agency, 2001.

5 BBC, 2002.


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Virtual innocence?

Many public bodies, NGOs and private companies around the world are dedicating resources to determining the impact of the Internet on young people and how to protect them from its harmful effects. One such group is the Save the Children organization, which has worked with us to produce these pages. Open your eyes to reality, your children could be in danger!


25 percent of five-year olds use the Internet.

As early as 2001, 25 percent of five-year olds in the USA used the Internet. This figure reached 75 percent for children between 15 and 17-years old. Surprising data, revealed by the “Computer and Internet Use by Children and Adolescents in 2001” study carried out by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, and which reflects the early age at which children begin to use the Internet, and the role that the Web plays in the lives of adolescents.


In 2004 more children used the Internet than adults.

“Children have overtaken adults in terms of average access to the Internet”. This is one of the conclusions of the Association for the Research of Communication Media after carrying out in 2004 the “Sixth AIMC survey of Internet users”. Specific data points to the fact that children between 8 and 13-years old make up half of the total number of Internet users. Most of them access the Web from home and the most frequent activities are browsing, chatting and playing games online.


44 percent of children have felt sexually harassed on the Internet.

According to the “Child security and use of the Internet by minors” survey, published in Spain by the Child Protection Agency in 2002, 44 percent of minors that use the Internet regularly have felt sexually harassed at one time and 11 percent admitted having encountered this experience on several occasions. In other cases, the offense may take the form of insults from other Internet users or unsolicited mail with offensive content.

Worryingly, 14.5 percent of children in the survey had arranged a meeting with a stranger via the Internet and 8 percent had done so on more than one occasion. Ten percent of these attended on their own and 7 percent had not even told anyone that they were going to meet someone.


28 percent of minors visit pornographic web pages.

According to the survey in the previous section, 19 percent of children access pornographic pages at some time or other and another nine percent do so frequently. This same survey also revealed a series of data about children accessing dangerous content:

- Children accessing pages with violent content: 38%
- Children accessing pages with racist/xenophobic content: 16%
- Children entering chat sessions about sex: 26%


50% of children use the Internet alone.

In 2003, the “Safe Internet” study by the Catalan Research Foundation highlighted how half of the minors interviewed were unaccompanied when they surfed the Net. The same study noted the risk that situation represents for children given their propensity to use chat forums. Submerged in written conversations in these forums, it could be difficult for them to spot the true identity of the person they are talking to; and if this virtual conversation became a face-to-face meeting… it doesn’t bear thinking about.

The study also mentions the risk of children visiting games pages alone, as many of these are pirate sites with a high proportion of pornographic advertising in the form of pop-ups. This type of window opens up automatically on-screen, often with images that could be highly offensive for children.

Unaccompanied use of the Internet by children can also have series consequences on your pocket. The Internauts Association (Spain) has detected an increase in the number of incidents involving “porno dialers”: programs that offer pornographic content without the need to use credit cards. These programs make a modem connection from the computer, dialing a high-rate number and the first thing you know about it is an astronomical telephone bill.

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What is lying in wait?

Whenever your children connect to the Internet unsupervised, they run the risk of falling victim to multiple threats, many of which have serious consequences. Don’t leave them to face the dangers alone!


What they should never have seen...

The curious nature of children could lead them to degrading, racist, discriminative, sexual, violent... content (text and images) or to sites that encourage them to carry out activities that put their psychological or physical integrity at risk.


Who they should never have met...

Unfortunately, there have already been quite a few cases of pedophiles passing themselves off as other children or fantasy characters to gain the confidence of children in order to have obscene or openly sexual conversions with them or even arrange to meet them face-to-face.


What they should never have done...

Email messages, forums or chats could convince, trick or even coerce children into committing all types of crimes both inside and outside the Internet.


What they should never have bought...

If your children have access to your bank details or credit card number, they can buy almost anything via the Internet, from a poster to a luxury car, or contract services ranging from online games to a trip around the world.


What they should never have downloaded...

Many websites, email messages and file sharing programs allow users to download all types of music, games, documents, etc. However, although they may appear harmless, many of them hide viruses or programs that infect computers or open the door to hackers, who could then steal confidential data, among other things.

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Keep them out of harm’s way

Of all the advice we can offer to ensure that your kids’ use of the Internet is a positive and educational experience, there’s no doubt that the best of all is to share the experience with them. Surf the Web with your kids! You’ll probably be surprised at how much they know!


Find out about the privacy policy of your ISP

Your access to the Net is provided by an Internet Service Provider or ISP and it should have a privacy policy. It is important that you are aware of it, as this policy deals with how your ISP will use the information collected about you or your children while you are browsing from your computer.


Establish firm rules with your children about using the Internet

Establish some clear and firm rules with your kids to control the timetable, connection time, and way of using the Internet. Make sure they obey these rules, especially with respect to using the Internet at night.


Teach your children that appearances can be deceptive

On the Internet, you can’t see or hear the other users that you are connected with (unless you have a webcam), which makes it all too easy for some people to pretend to be someone else. For example, someone claiming to be a 12-year-old girl could easily be a 40-year old pedophile. With this in mind, your kids should fully understand that it is forbidden to arrange to meet other Internet users without your permission.


Don’t let your kids give personal information over the Internet

Your children must understand that they must never send personal details that could identify them: name, age, phone numbers, school or home address, etc. Also make sure that they don’t have access to credit card numbers or bank details so they can’t buy products or services on the Internet.

Recommend they use nicknames or aliases when communicating over the Internet: kids often see that as a kind of game and it is also an excellent way of protecting their identities.

Don’t publish photographs of your kids on web pages or public forums.


Keep your children away from unsuitable content

Teach your children how to act when faced with offensive material: tell them not to click on any link in email messages from unknown sources. These links could point to inappropriate sites or download viruses that will infect your computer.

If you or your children receive a threatening message, either sexual or violent, send a copy to your ISP and ask for help.

Delete from your computer any trace of information (browser history, email messages, documents, etc.) that you don’t want your kids to find. The example you set will be their best guide.


Install a good antivirus program on your computer

It is essential for the security of your children and your computer that you install a good antivirus program that protects against known and unknown viruses, hackers, spam, spyware, dialers and other Internet threats.

From Panda Software, we offer you a solution that gives you maximum protection: Panda Platinum Internet Security 2005. This solution includes a parental control feature to prevent access to inappropriate content.

And now you can get it free with 3 months’ services and updates. Find out here.







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