By Kristen Masley
Before telephones and computers, it was fairly easy to protect children from giving out information to strangers.
These days, the parents and schools of Bridgewater are taking measures ensure the safety of their children online.
“The Internet creeps me out,” said Cathy Bridges, a mother of two from Bridgewater. “We need Internet safety because my children will be using it more than me (in the future).”
The growing need and attention of Internet safety for children has sparked awareness in Bridgewater’s public school systems.
At the regional middle school and high school in Bridgewater, there are filters utilized in order to protect students.
The school has installed Mecguard, a filter distributed by MecNet, a technology company for Massachusetts that offers opportunities for public places such as schools and libraries to install technology and IT tech support.
Massachusetts public school systems have set up a contract with Mecnet for all schools to be technologically equipped and available to the faculty and students.
The program MecGuard that the school’s Internet is connected with ensures that students go online for research.
“The students usually only have time in school to use computers for academic purposes only” said Tim Kaliff, an administrative intern and teacher at Williams Middle school. “They have technology classes where they learn about the Internet and computer skills.”
The filter at the middle school blocks out any social websites and any website that shows nudity or violence. The filter also scans websites for explicit written material. The system automatically blocks a website if any of these provocative images or words are detected on the webpage.
“Our e-mails are sometimes blocked due to the content,” said Cathy Martelli, a secretary at the Middle School as she pulled up her e-mail to show how the filter worked on her computer.
“It is tough to get around the block (of the filter),” said Kaliff. “It is a very good filter.”
Some websites that teachers access for their classrooms are blocked due to some content.
“The science teachers have trouble pulling up pictures of the human body because the filter considers it, you know nudity or inappropriate,” said Kaliff.
To gain access to a website needed for academic purposes, a teacher can send in a request to a network manager from MecNet. The network manager can review the page and then grant access to the website.
Bridgewater schools have strict guidelines for Internet use, but children still face risks at home on the Internet.
According to the Henry J. Kaiser foundation, among the 96 percent of children that have ever used the Internet, 65 percent say they go online most often at home and 14 percent from school.
“I have no idea about a filter but I know we have parental controls” says Cathy Bridges when asked what she does to protect her children at home.
Forty-five percent of parents have monitoring software that records what users do online, according to a study by the Internet and American Life Project in 2007.
But many parents still don’t have filters on home computers.
“Some parents don’t allow their children to use the Internet,” said Martelli.
The school systems are taking measures to protect children away from home but how are they being protected at home if the family does not have a filter?
According to an Internet and American Life Project study, 85 percent of parents of online teens say they have rules about Internet sites their child can or cannot visit.
Parents are getting smarter when it comes to what their child is exposed to on the Internet. They understand that as the technological world grows, the more their child needs to be aware of giving out personal information and what sites are appropriate to visit.
“My child sometimes wanders (on the Internet) without knowing what he is doing,” says Karla Kull of Bridgewater and the mother of a 5 year old boy. “He can end up in places he doesn’t know about.”
Cox Communications, a digital cable company that services some parts of Massachusetts has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to launch a campaign called “TakeCharge.”
The “TakeCharge” campaign was created to spread an awareness of Internet safety. The website offers tips to parents about making safe decisions online.
It offers suggestions on how to monitor children’s Internet usages and ways to ensure privacy when accessing the Internet from a home computer.
The need to protect children online is growing each day as the Internet becomes more accessible and larger in scale.
According to a study by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2006, children experience unwanted exposure to sexual material (1 in 3 youth) and harassment -- threatening or other offensive behavior directed at them (1 in 11 youth).
Parents and public school systems play a key role in ensuring the safety of their children.
“I feel it is important to have Internet safety,” said Karen Inglas of Bridgewater. “There are some creepy guys out there, parents must monitor (online) better.”
kmasley@student.stonehill.edu
Before telephones and computers, it was fairly easy to protect children from giving out information to strangers.
These days, the parents and schools of Bridgewater are taking measures ensure the safety of their children online.
“The Internet creeps me out,” said Cathy Bridges, a mother of two from Bridgewater. “We need Internet safety because my children will be using it more than me (in the future).”
The growing need and attention of Internet safety for children has sparked awareness in Bridgewater’s public school systems.
At the regional middle school and high school in Bridgewater, there are filters utilized in order to protect students.
The school has installed Mecguard, a filter distributed by MecNet, a technology company for Massachusetts that offers opportunities for public places such as schools and libraries to install technology and IT tech support.
Massachusetts public school systems have set up a contract with Mecnet for all schools to be technologically equipped and available to the faculty and students.
The program MecGuard that the school’s Internet is connected with ensures that students go online for research.
“The students usually only have time in school to use computers for academic purposes only” said Tim Kaliff, an administrative intern and teacher at Williams Middle school. “They have technology classes where they learn about the Internet and computer skills.”
The filter at the middle school blocks out any social websites and any website that shows nudity or violence. The filter also scans websites for explicit written material. The system automatically blocks a website if any of these provocative images or words are detected on the webpage.
“Our e-mails are sometimes blocked due to the content,” said Cathy Martelli, a secretary at the Middle School as she pulled up her e-mail to show how the filter worked on her computer.
“It is tough to get around the block (of the filter),” said Kaliff. “It is a very good filter.”
Some websites that teachers access for their classrooms are blocked due to some content.
“The science teachers have trouble pulling up pictures of the human body because the filter considers it, you know nudity or inappropriate,” said Kaliff.
To gain access to a website needed for academic purposes, a teacher can send in a request to a network manager from MecNet. The network manager can review the page and then grant access to the website.
Bridgewater schools have strict guidelines for Internet use, but children still face risks at home on the Internet.
According to the Henry J. Kaiser foundation, among the 96 percent of children that have ever used the Internet, 65 percent say they go online most often at home and 14 percent from school.
“I have no idea about a filter but I know we have parental controls” says Cathy Bridges when asked what she does to protect her children at home.
Forty-five percent of parents have monitoring software that records what users do online, according to a study by the Internet and American Life Project in 2007.
But many parents still don’t have filters on home computers.
“Some parents don’t allow their children to use the Internet,” said Martelli.
The school systems are taking measures to protect children away from home but how are they being protected at home if the family does not have a filter?
According to an Internet and American Life Project study, 85 percent of parents of online teens say they have rules about Internet sites their child can or cannot visit.
Parents are getting smarter when it comes to what their child is exposed to on the Internet. They understand that as the technological world grows, the more their child needs to be aware of giving out personal information and what sites are appropriate to visit.
“My child sometimes wanders (on the Internet) without knowing what he is doing,” says Karla Kull of Bridgewater and the mother of a 5 year old boy. “He can end up in places he doesn’t know about.”
Cox Communications, a digital cable company that services some parts of Massachusetts has partnered with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to launch a campaign called “TakeCharge.”
The “TakeCharge” campaign was created to spread an awareness of Internet safety. The website offers tips to parents about making safe decisions online.
It offers suggestions on how to monitor children’s Internet usages and ways to ensure privacy when accessing the Internet from a home computer.
The need to protect children online is growing each day as the Internet becomes more accessible and larger in scale.
According to a study by National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in 2006, children experience unwanted exposure to sexual material (1 in 3 youth) and harassment -- threatening or other offensive behavior directed at them (1 in 11 youth).
Parents and public school systems play a key role in ensuring the safety of their children.
“I feel it is important to have Internet safety,” said Karen Inglas of Bridgewater. “There are some creepy guys out there, parents must monitor (online) better.”
kmasley@student.stonehill.edu
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