Kids are Just Kids

In a world of online sexual predators, sexting, ubiquitous access to pornography, the political rants of extremists on the recruitment trail, hackers seeking private information, voyeurs on the prowl, vendors seeking sales and the lovely NSA watching and recording it all, the big question is always, “How do we insulate the children from this pernicious universe?”

Even legendary Apple just got slammed from a private class action where kids seized the moment to buy an app or two that mom and dad did not authorize: “Apple Inc. will pay at least $32.5 million in consumer refunds to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it wrongly billed parents millions of dollars for unauthorized charges incurred by their children in kids' mobile apps.

“The company, which settled a private class action over the same conduct in October, likened the settlement to 'double jeopardy,' as Apple CEO Tim Cook put it in a letter to employees, and FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright dissented from the deal, arguing the FTC did not meet its burden of proof.

“The FTC in an administrative complaint alleged Apple failed to tell parents that when they entered their passwords to authorize purchases of virtual items or currency in an app, their kids could continue to make unlimited additional app purchases for the next 15 minutes. According to the FTC, thousands of kids did so, racking up millions in charges on apps such as Dragon Story and Tiny Zoo Friends.” LegalTimes.com, January 15^th.

If the little guys mastered that loophole, think about what the older children are able to accomplish! “The Ofcom Report on Internet safety measures validated every parent's worst fear about their child's online behavior: Children know more about navigating the Internet than their parents do. That means all those filters and parental controls were probably set up in vain. Indeed, researchers found that 18% of kids know how to disable Internet filters, even if only 6% of them actually admitted to doing so.

“Nearly half of adolescents between the ages 12 to 15 know how to delete their browsing history, while 29% can alter settings to disguise their browser activity. As children become more aware that their parents are invested in seeing the sites they visit, they become more adept at hiding their tracks.” FastCompany.com, January 19^th.

The British response to this study was hardly surprising: “In response to the report, [U.K.] Culture Secretary Maria Miller said that filters were not ‘a silver bullet.’… ‘Parents have a central role to play in protecting their children, including by talking to them about how to stay safe online,’ she said…. According to the report, many parents feel their computing skills are far inferior to their children's…. Almost half (44%) of parents with children aged between eight and 11 say their child knows more about the internet than they do. That rises to 63% for parents of 12-15-year-olds.” BBC.co.uk, January 16^th.

Almost two years ago, several Australian studies provided similar results: “Fifty nine per cent of children have ways of hiding what they're doing online - and their parents know it, a survey by internet security specialist McAfee has found… Of all age groups, children are the most adept at managing their ‘digital footprint,’ or how they appear online… ‘Children are far better at managing their profile controls and what their identity looks like to others,’ Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre CEO Associate Professor Jane Burns said.

“In a thetelegraph.com.au survey, one in four people said they had been left behind by their children's online knowledge and one in three were worried they weren't able to protect their children from web dangers… Associate Professor Burns said that, rather than be embarrassed about asking for help, parents should embrace their children's cyber smarts.”

news.com.au/technology, April 14, 2012. Got kids? Know what they are doing? Are you sure? What are you doing about it?

I’m Peter Dekom, and kids learn fast… sometimes too fast.