A secure democratic Net is a fundamental right

THere was a report by ChildFocus (an organisation that was set up after our Dutroux affair) about online prostitution in which - in the words of the researcher - youngsters were being convinced to show some nudity online by the webcam and blackmailed afterwards to go for real sex while other youngsters just played their online hookerservice for some extra cash (how else to pay for all that tech and drinks and pills ?).

That is the serious stuff.

This made be quite laugh also because - excuse me for being old enough to remember - but wasn't it announced with great publicity that our EID would be used to block elders out of chatrooms for younger people ? Wasn't it announced after some scandals that chatrooms would be more monitored ? And seriously isn't there some responsability under Belgian law for the service providers ? We are talking about underage sex and blackmailed prostitution and stuff like that.

There is some responsability for parents. The first thing you can do is limit the people that can invite your kid to be friend or send him or her stuff. THis is done by setting the chat to 'invite only' for friends and mails and so on. The same goes for the webcam. This should not be set automatically but should be set on by hand and in the safest case (there are exploits to activate a webcam even if it is turned off in the program) just pull the plug. There is nothing wrong at pulling plugs, even in this ever connected world.

So this is garbage research. You should search for solutions you should propose solutions. Not make some publicity for one day and than go on as if nothing has happened and lay all the blame on the individual parents.

And Yes, I have limited the internet and chat access of my kids and yes they are being told how to be safe and what absolutely NOT to do. If they infect the computer, the computer will be off limits for them for some time, this is a punishment they understand and fear even more. And guess what. They feel more comfortable working in a limited safe environment than on that enormous big web without any rules and with too many dangers. THey are kids after all and I am after all responsable for them. Oh yes and the computer is not in their room.... It is just as the tv, a family thing to do family stuff