Protecting children online: Get their computers out of the bedroom

The story of the Tweed Heads magistrate breaking down and weeping is touching and tragic and it illustrates why all parents need to supervise their kid's web usage.

This particular pervert took advantage of kids as young as nine, meeting them through chat rooms and exploiting through webcams. In this particular case, a teenage girl was manipulated into sexually abusing her younger brother in front of her webcam.

Jeff Linden, the magistrate who heard this Australian case, calls for more internet filtering. I'm not sure this will avoid such horrific cases. Perverts like the perpetrator of this crime will find a way to exploit kids wherever they congregate, be it on MySpace or the local playground.

In my view, parents need to supervise Internet usage. The Internet is like a big city and there are parts of any city where most adults would feel safe visting, let alone children. No parent would allow their children to wander around big cities unsupervised.

Yet this is what many do with the Internet. Not only do a lot of parents allow the kids to use the computers in their own room, but they also allow them to use equipment like webcams.

It's bad enough letting kids have TVs in their rooms and allowing the unmitigated, brain numbing trash into their bedrooms. But the Internet invites far more trouble.

Forget filtering. Supervise your kids.

On a slightly different topic, it's clear there's a chilling effect on Australian reporting by not mentioning the name of the perpetrators of these acts. The reason's clear: Australian judges have shown they will abandon trials and even cite reporters for contempt if they name anyone who might face such charges .

This chilling effect worked with me, I deliberately re-wrote this post to remove names and links to non-Australian articles. I'd hate to see one of these online predators getting away because their lawyers can claim a blog like this is responsible for them not being able to get a fair trial.