Reading Chapter 11 didn't really teach me anything new, but it did do nice job of actually tying everything we have learned in class together. We spoke about everything from the legal aspects, economic issues and parent’s responsibilities, but one aspect of the article that we didn't talk too much about was the Internet industry's responsibilities to contribute to the Internet safety of children.
Obviously, it is hard to point to one specific company or person we can point to and tell to straiten everything up, but as the article points out, there are the ISPs and online service providers, makers of personal computers, software vendors, content providers, and the adult online industry. These industries need to be held accountable as well as pressured into taken stronger measures to protect children from all the garbage on the net.
It's easy to say how it is just up to parents to protect children from what is out there, but in reality they can't be there all the time. We also can't expect children to police themselves at all times either. This is where the industry needs to step up and do a better job of protecting them. In order to get them to step up, the government should be putting pressure on them to comply a regulation of technology to protect children. The argument that it’s too difficult to create effective software programs to do so, really doesn’t work for me either. With the brilliant minds that created and are now maintaining the Internet, somebody can come up with user friendly software that will get the job done properly.
The main reason we aren't seeing many results is the lack of urgency by the different segments that make all this technology work together. It's costly and time consuming and without any pressure to take great strides to improve, we probably won't see many changes. The government should be stepping in and putting some of that pressure on them. Not only should the government be applying pressure, but the consumer, the parents should be voicing their concerns as well. This chapter spoke about the many aspects that need to come together to protect our youth from the Internet, but with such a sophisticated technology it's unfair to place all the responsibility on the parents and children themselves.
