Why would any parent allow their child to go onto any site where they can interact with adults?

Question

Yahoo Q&A is one such site, there is a lot of adult content to be found here, I didn't know this site allowed children but have only recently discovered that there are children here. I think it is just totally wrong to have adults and children interacting on the same site, I think it is putting a lot of children at risk.

Answer 1

Most parents don't know what their kids are doing on line. I just don't let my kids even touch the computer at all. I may sound strict, but I think for their safety, they do not need to be on line.

Answer 2

Most parents don't allow there children to do this; it is just hard and almost impossible to prevent children from entering these sites. You can try asking for a credit card number to verify age but most people are skeptical of these and also, children have only to sneak a parents wallet and give CC information. How do you prove a child is in fact a child online? If you truly want a soltution, come up with a software that can undoubtedly prove age for any and all websites restricted to 18 and above. I have been trying to write such software for a long time now since I have recently had children of my own. I know one day they too will be online, and by that time the internet may very well be the most dangerous place in the world.

Jonesy

Answer 3

Good to know you are aware of what your children, are finding on the Internet, and yes I think a lot of questions on Q&A, are for adults only. But there are a lot of children, that ask questions here, some even list there age & ask for "clean answers", if your children want to use this site, I would make it a strict rule, that only when you are sitting with you, so that you can choose which Q&A is apropriate for them. Some of the Q&A by other kids, help each other know that a lot of them are going thru similar situations at school &home, it can be nice to know your not the only one with a problem. But keep it well monitered. You are right to be concerned, I had parenatal blocks put on my computor, and my 13 year old duaghter, disengaged them (I don't know how), but she could only use the computor, with supovision after that. This was a pain in the neck for me, but I felt it was necessary, the kids are very clever today.

Answer 4

That's why parents need to pay attention to what their children are doing on line. My kids like to answer questions here but they only get to do so with my choice of question - that way I know that they will feel confident answering the question but are in a safe q&a zone (like food and drink or games and recreation). They also have used the homewoork help with great success - yes their is inapproriate content here that is why they aren't allowed free reign. We have talked about it and they understand it is my job to decide what they are allowed access to on the internet as a whole. Unfortunately there are a great many people who don't play close attention to what content their child participates in regardless of if it is the internet or TV just as some parents will assume that all animated programming is made for children. Each parent must set their own boundries for their child.

Answer 5

I partially agree with you there, but the most disturbing thing is that most of the "adult content" comes from the kids. A bunch of 16 or even 12 year olds talking about all kinds of crazy stuff they really shouldn't be doing (sexual and otherwise). Was I that stupid when I was 12? I'd like to think I was never that stupid.

P.S. Apple computers have "amazing" parental controls. You can give them an account, and restrict them to exactly the websites you want, prevent them from listening to mature music (at least in iTunes), keep them chatting to only people you have approved, and monitor e-mail sent and received. You can be as obsessive or free with the controls as you want. Plus Macs are so much better anyways it's not even funny.

Answer 6

You are absolutely correct, but I believe that part of being a good parent is knowing what your kids are doing. If your kids use myspace, find out what is all about. If they use yahoo a&a, find out what its about and make the parental judgement to decide if the site can be trusted.

A reality of raising children, you can have learn as much a they can under your supervision even if some of it is considered bad or not so healthy or let them learn it on there own with no supervision and I don't think we need to discuss the consequences in that.

Answer 7

No, I would absolutely not allow my children on this site. And I'm actually quite disturbed by the fact that children have answered my questions and by some of the questions that children have asked themselves.

Answer 8

Actuallly, this is a good site for interaction between children and adults as long as the children are monitored and they cannot be reached via email or IM.

Answer 9

If you're asking me, I'm not yet a parent but I'm married and I plan to have kids soon. When I do, I'm going to be careful not to keep my kids from experiencing the real world. When I grew up, I was sheltered heavily and this caused social inadequacies that I'm still struggling with. Another example is my wife's younger cousins who are both teenager and they don't know basic sexual and anatomical things like what female breasts are for (IE: feeding babies). I know not every parent shelters their kids as stringently as they do, but I'd much rather my future children know too much than too little.

Answer 10

you are totally right about that, they should have a yahoo answer for adults and then one for younger kids. Most parents moniter the kids footprints on the computer and some just dont really care.