Computer expert hits back at “flawed” UK Government plan to protect children on the Internet
AN EXPERTIN CHILDPROTECTIONon the Internet and provider of a safe and simple computer safeguard system has hit back at UK Government plans to block porn accessat source as “flawed and badly thought-out”. Culture Minister Ed Vaizey told the Sunday Times that the UK Government was looking at ways of introducing UK legislation to halt pornography sites at source. But leading IT consultant Nathan Wright, of the renowned child Internet protection system CYBERminder™,said: “One size fits all is a concept that will not work. The Internet is a global, not a national phenomenon.” Power should be in the hands of parents immediately – not after several years of discussion, said Nathan. “While a high level debate on this serious topic is long overdue there are likely to be too many technical, moral and potentially legal challenges to this concept,” he said. "Proposed UK-only legislation in the couple of years suggested is small comfort to parents whose children are right now being exposed to the dangers of Internet pornography.” In response to the government proposal, Nicholas Lansman, secretary general of the ISPA(Internet Service Providers Association) said: "ISPA firmly believes that controls on children's accessto the Internet should be managed by parents and carers with the tools ISPsprovide, rather than being imposed top-down." Nathan Wright runs the “Supervise And Protect” website and fully supports Lansman's comments saying: "CYBERminder already offers a totally viable solution to this issue of child protection on the Internet. Certainly teenagers want to have accessto a wider range of sites than a younger child and our simple USBkey device caters for this, while importantly still providing safeguards." All parents can choose appropriate protection for their child, or children of multiple ages, as CYBERminder is offered for under-nines nine-to-12s and teenagers, in a very easy to use non-technical way. Parents themselves can accessthe Internet without restriction. Internet usage today can be the norm for children as young as four years old. They quickly learn how they can find what they are looking for using search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The problem is children frequently stumble across content that is inappropriate for their age including pornography, gambling and violence. Miranda Suit, co-chair of Safer Media, which campaigns to make media safe for children, told the BBC that the pornography available on the Internet now was very different from any that has gone before.
She cited a report compiled by the USconservative think tank The Witherspoon Institute which suggested that easy accessto pornography was damaging some young people. "Children are becoming addicted in their teens to internet pornography," she said. "They are being mentally damaged so they cannot engage in intimate relationships." Safer Media backed any measures to block pornography reaching family environments. "What we are talking about is censorship to protect our children," she said. Nathan Wright said: “Both government and the private sector need to work together to minimise the possible harm that inappropriate content may cause our children." Options are available to parents now enabling them to do exactly what the government requires without the need to legislate or use a sledgehammer approach. CYBERminder, a British invention, consists of simple-to-use USBkeys which control what material children and teenagers can gain accessto from their computer at home. Notes to Editors Nathan Wright is CEOof “ Supervise And Protect” and offers the CYBERminder USBsystem through its website. Jersey-based, he is an IT consultant with more than 20 years of experience installing and managing IT and communication systems for the offshore financial services sector. He is an expert in e-commerce, the Internet and the commercial marketplace, and is the founder of one of the Channel Islands’ first and most successful Internet service providers, LocalDial. He recently created the “Jersey Parents” website to help parents understand and control what their children are doing and seeing online. High resolution images are available at: http://www.SuperviseAndProtect.com/mediaimages.aspx Pleasecontact Maureen Keepin on +44(0)1285740040(MediaUK@SuperviseAndProtect.com) or Nathan Wright on +44(0)1173350 616 (Nathan@SuperviseAndProtect.com) to arrange interviews.