Age-verification on the internet
By Patricia
@PatriciaL (2080)
United States
December 3, 2006 7:27pm CST
What do you think should be done to improve this matter? It's really not preventing children from getting into sites that they shouldn't. I mean, some of these sites just ask for a birthdate! With that, a 10 year old child can instantly become a 13 year old, 18 year old, 21 year old, or whatever the age requirement may be. It's sad that with all the advances in technology, all the websites are doing are these not so child-proof age verifications. What do you think should be done in order to protect our children and make it not as easy for them to get into a site that they shouldn't be? I'm not asking what the parents can do(I already know what parents can do to prevent it) but what the websites should do.
5 responses
@tentwo67 (3382)
• United States
4 Dec 06
I agree with you that it's a terrible problem, but I don't think that the onus is on the website folks to prevent it. It needs to be on the parental end of controlling and being aware of what your children are doing online. Without that, I don't know how a website could logistically prevent age "tampering" as it were. There are ways to limit where your child can go online and to make you aware if they try to go to other sites. The parents must get involved.
@PatriciaL (2080)
• United States
4 Dec 06
Yeah, I agree. Parents can prevent their children from going to certain sites. They can also install a monitoring program onto their child's computer to see all of their activity. Thanks for your response!
@prenuer (277)
• United States
8 Dec 06
Some sites are asking that you have a credit card or something to verify age. Those kiddie cards or prepaid cards won't work. This is the only way that I know to truly verify age and they will usually deposit a few cents into the account that you need to verify.
@PatriciaL (2080)
• United States
9 Dec 06
I would think that prepaid credit cards would do just fine but maybe not. Thanks for your response!
@paperzombie (236)
• United States
4 Dec 06
Unfortunaltley, there isnt a way to improve it. Like myspace, you have to be a certain age, giving your birthday doesnt do anything, you can always change the year. I think that parents need to take more responsibility for their kids.
1 person likes this
@PatriciaL (2080)
• United States
4 Dec 06
Yeah, that's true parents do play a big part. Thanks for your response!
@sj_chaudhry (1537)
• Canada
8 Dec 06
i think you might heared about it like if you talked with your service provider then they will block such sites so that you'll be free and there'll be no need to check on them, but occassionally you should check history of items of ur children which they had visited so that u'll b able to know abt their general interests.
@PatriciaL (2080)
• United States
9 Dec 06
Yeah, I plan to use a internet monitoring software for mine. Thanks for your response!
