Pornography is a billion dollar business with about 62% of users on the Internet at any given time accessing pornographic sites, that’s about 70 million people a week. According to the Nielsen/Net Ratings in 2002 nearly 16 percent of visitors to adult pornographic websites are under age 18. Adam West, a families.com computer writer lists statistics about internet child predators in his blog.
With so much pornographic material out there it is likely that your children will view some at some point. So how does pornography reach our kids?
There are a number of ways that our children can be exposed to pornography:
Websites featuring sexually explicit material are easily accessed accidentally or on purpose. Sites often have links on other sites that can easily be clicked on. Most sites do not ask or monitor the age of the viewers.
Children misspelling a URL or search word can reach pornographic sites.
Some pornographic sites mislabel their sites so search engines do not realize the information their site contains. Thus their site could be accessed through a non-related search.
Mousetrapping is also used. This is when someone is automatically forwarded to another site when trying to leave one website.
The Information Technology Commission stated that 30% of unsolicited emails contain pornographic information. Just opening the email can take the user to a site.
Information in chat rooms is usually unmonitored and can turn to sexual issues, some of them very explicit.
Instant messaging can be very dangerous because a child predator can know when your child is on-line. Make sure that your child’s personal information, especially age, is not listed.
Some peer-to-peer networks send pornographic material. This information is free of charge and can often bypass filtering systems. Your child also might be sent to pornographic sites while doing a legitimate search on a peer-to-peer network. Net Safe Kids.org says that on KaZaA, a popular P2P, the keywords “Britney Spears,” “Pokemon,” and the “Olsen twins” can yield sexually explicit content.
For information about protecing your child from pornography read my upcoming blog.