Why doesn't Yahoo do anything to protect the kids giving out personal information on Answers?

Question

And where are their school administrators while they are giving out personal information during school hours? where are their parents? Are these the same parents who are shown on the news saying, I didn't know my kid was online? Hello? Dunedin High School Principle? hello?

Come on peolple, stop passing the buck! We are ALL responsible if we turn a blind eye when we see this kind of stuff and say, It's someone else's job! Yahoo routinely deletes accounts for trivial reasons. Do you realize the liability they have for allowing this on a rutine basis?

Princess Peach, I'm not even sure how to respond to your question. Am I just supposed to ignore the fact that kids are being stalked, molested, abused and even killed every day because people say, well, it's not my job? Most of it can easily be prevented if people CARE enough to stop it!

Answer 1

While I agree that it is up to the parents to educate their children on what NOT to say while on the internet, parents are not around 24/7. As for school administration, I have no clue why Yahoo Answers would be able to be accessed during school hours anyways. That in itself makes no sense to me.

I don't think that some of these kids realize the personal information they are giving out. You don't have to say my name is _____, I live in _______. My phone number is ______. Parents need to be educating their children about giving their school name, the place where they have a part time job, their town, etc.

I have a lot of issues with Yahoo at this point, Questions and answers get deleted for no good reason, there are people with multiple accounts, there is a bunch of nonsense, in addition to people giving out personal information. None of the people who work for Yahoo even bother to investigate ANYTHING that goes on on Answers. Don't give me that crap "Oh it's too much for them to do it...bla bla bl." This is a billion dollar empire we're talking about here. Yahoo chooses not to do anything. They don't investigate questions and answers, they don't do anything about the multuiple accounts, or the underage users. Makes me want to delete my account just talking about it.

Answer 2

There is only so much a parent can do. Kids can find computers to use just about anywhere. They have cafes with computers, the librariy has computers, friends have computers and the list goes on. No parent can follow their child all day long. A parent can have talks with the child and explain why it's a bad idea to give information, but they can't totally stop it.
As for me seeing kids giving out info on here, I would probably email them and ask them to remove it, but by then, somebody would probably have the info they wanted.
I don't think you can blame any one person or place. In the end, kids do make choices that aren't always wise.
I don't see an easy answer on how to stop kids from giving info on the internet.

Princess Peach, I am glad a lot of people don't have your attitude and actually care about others.

Answer 3

Well, since I am a parent, I have taught my kids the dangers of the internet & not to share information of that sort with anyone on the internet. Also, my kids are limited to where they can go on the internet & they are closely monitored here at home. The schools that my children attend have the students & the parents sign a waiver at the first of the year every year for internet usage at school that is basically a contract that they agree not to go on websites deemed unnecessary by the school. They are only supposed to be using the internet for information for schoolwork & the like. If they are caught breaking this contract they are banned from all computer usage at school. I don't know what else the school can do, but I believe that all this does go back to the parents educating their kids on the internet & being involved in what their kids are doing on the internet.

Answer 4

Yahoo is not a baby sitter. Nor are they physic. Kids lie about their age to sign up for things via the Internet daily. They don't have complete control over that problem.
Also, no one said that Yahoo! Answers wasn't for kids, there are sections that they can get answers for as well. It's just that Yahoo! Answers has so many different topics and kids may wander in to some of them. It's up to their parents to protect them from the bad side of the Internet and to educate their children to not give out personal info anywhere, not just on Yahoo.
It's not the responsibility of Yahoo faculty.

Also— in most schools, if they're in a computer class the teacher is not a babysitter either. She has the responsibility of more then just one student to attain to.
Furthermore, if you don't educate your children about Internet safety and the hazards of giving out private information, that's YOUR own fault. No one else is to blame.

Answer 5

What COULD they do?
So far, we don't (that we generally know of) have
keyboards that read finger or palm prints, or web cameras that scan for age identification, and websites or governmental entities that can, as a result, redirect age-inappropriate site access attempts, disable keyboards, or shut down systems altogether for repeat atempted-offenders.

'Sound a little Orwellian?
Well, what would you have them, or anyone else do?

At some point, parents have a job to do, its called Raising Their Children, and part of that is instilling in them values, including a sense of right and wrong behavior, and an idea of consequences.
If they would just make an effort to do that effectively, I feel certain that quite a few of the tragedies we hear about on the nightly news could be avoided altogether.

When parents are "too busy" to raise their chldren, other entities make themselves readily available.
The parents don't seem to consider how minimal the reward of their "free time/ me time" is, against the potential cost of the loss of their children's innocence. ...'or worse.

Answer 6

I don't think they should have to...i mean it is good but if that "child" is big enough to get on the computer and get on this website and make a name they should be smart enough not to give out personal information. They learn about what not to do in school. It is not yahoo answers responisiblity for each and every kid that gets on here and pretty much says where they live. The parents should be more worried about what there kid is on it is there fault not yahoo answers!

Answer 7

How is Yahoo supposed to do that? When everything is said and done it all comes down to the parents. And I know some of us parents who don't care what their children are doing until something bad happens.

Answer 8

Why don't the parents of these kids monitor what they are doing? Stop putting all the blame on Yahoo and Google and the others and take a look inside.

Answer 9

well, i guess the people at yahoo are just too busy. when you think about it, yahoo should protect kidsfrom giving out their personal info, halt racist, degrading,insulting,obscene answers and questions. and though these type of things can be reported, actions will only be taken if there are multiple complaints. so you have to ask yahoo directly i think if you want a better answer.

Answer 10

they can't really. when it comes to the internet, anybody can be anyone in their profile. so they isn't really anyway of telling if they are a kid or not. plus, i think y! tries to delete the wuestions that people put personal info in, but if you thin about it, every question on here is a questiond dealing with a perosnal issue, therefore making it a personal question...