Should Kids Have Access to Unsupervised Internet?

56% of 11-16 year olds have seen explicit material online. 1 in 10 children (aged 8-11) have stated that they have seen something worrying. Now that modern technology has dominated the world, parents are giving their children phones and tablets at young ages, in order to have easier contact with them. However, what parents don’t know is that social media has its own dangers. Out of 25 students at Curie High School, 80% of them reported that kids should not have unsupervised internet access. Why are teens seeing explicit content normalized? Why are online dangers not taken seriously?

Although we blame many parents for not setting restrictions, society should be at fault for not considering the eyes of young kids. Many apps and websites, advertised as “kid friendly”, are hidden predators preying on children. They use subliminals, such as colorful pages and child-like names in order to get a child to click or download their website and app. For example, Youtube kids, an app made by Google, is a “kid-friendly” side of Youtube. It has heavy parental controls, but there are many ways kids can come across worrying content. On “Youtube Kids, Startling Videos Slip Past Filters” (published in Nov.4 2017, by Maheswari), they write that “Most of the videos flagged by parents were uploaded to YouTube in recent months by anonymous users with names like Kids Channel TV and Super Moon TV. The videos’ titles and descriptions feature popular character names and terms like “education” and “learn colors”. They comprehend how anonymous youtubers “click-bait” young audiences to watch their videos. In “7 Sites All Parents Should Add to Their Block List Right Now” (published feb.10, 2022 written by Dan Price), Price describes that ““If you're a parent, you will no doubt be aware of the dangers of giving your child unfettered access to the web….Worryingly, even content that appears innocent can still be a minefield. For example, the YouTube Kids app has been criticized for letting unsuitable content leak through its filters. Meanwhile, popular kids streaming apps have been hijacked by pedophile rings and groomers”. To illustrate how easy it is for a video to slip past Youtube Kids’ filtering system, many anonymous “Kid-Friendly Youtubers” will start a video off with a well known childrens character, such as Mickey Mouse and Peppa Pig. They will name the video a long title, including key words as “Kids” and “Fun”. Finally, they use colorful thumbnails in order to catch a child's attention. These types of video also heavily advertise fast food, and toys, to kids.

With the recent COPPA act (The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), many youtubers stopped advertising things to kids. Previously, Youtube has been targeting ads to kids. But with the recent privacy laws, Youtube has stepped up their game and increased their priority to ensure a child's safety online. However, a part that Youtube can’t control is that content its creators decide to publish. Youtubers are known to hop on trends in order to profit their channel. They see a trend, publish a video about it, and earn money out of it. However, what most content creators don’t know is that children online will see their video, and mimic everything they do. A recent trend on Youtube was to go on websites, such as Omegle, to chat with strangers. Omegle is a site where you can chat (with video cameras) with people across the world. Youtubers would go there and post videos of them chatting with strangers. Kids would see this and go on the site themselves, just because their favorite content creator went there. In “7 Sites All Parents Should Add to Their Block Lists”, Price illustrates that ““When you go to the homepage, you can choose whether to participate in filtered or unfiltered chat. There are no age verification checks”. This means that young kids will go on this website and chat with random strangers (who were mostly adults). These influences go on these “chat room” websites, such as Omegle and Chatroulette, and encourage their young audiences to do the same. What most Youtubers don’t explain is that these sites reek of online harassment, racism, and sexual content. Another trend that started in Youtube was to go on a website, known as 4chan and Reddit, and to take part in their “50/50 challenge”. Content Creators would record videos of them clicking links, that could possibly be viruses, in order to watch videos. A person who decides to take part in this challenge would see two links appear. The person playing would have to click one. You would either get a normal video, like a dog playing, or a horrifying video that often included gore. Kids would see their favorite content creator and would go on 4chan and Reddit to do this challenge on their own. In “7 Sites All Parents Should Add to Their Block List Right Now”, Price acknowledges that “The site's rap sheet is worryingly long. It's endured headline-grabbing scandals as diverse as racism, child pornography, celebrity nude photo leaks, murders and killing sprees, and the Gamergate controversy”. Sites like 4Chan are known for the amount of hate the website promotes. From racism, to actual murders being commited relating to something on the site, 4chan is still a free website, and it doesn’t seem to be shutting down anytime soon. Some websites are promoted as “Kids Friendly”, and some are seen as being part of a trend. However, websites like “Kidschat.net” have been around the internet for almost a decade, and does not seem to be shutting down either.

“Kidschat.net” uses the same type of advertising that Youtube kids does. However, it is not a professionally made site. Unlike Youtube Kids, Kidschat.net doesn’t have any filtering, censoring, nor age verifications. It is like a website straight from the dark web. In “Take Down Kidschat.net”, a petition made by W. Keith, he informs that “KidsChat.net (previously ChildrensChat.net, the name was changed due to backlash on their website) has been an active website for the past 18 years. It advertises itself explicitly for children's usage, despite being littered with unmonitored predators”. This website seems to be targeted to children and pedophiles. And For over 18 years, this site has been active, preying on children who are on the site. While only around a little percent of people there are actually children, most of the people there are adults, waiting for a child to harass. For years, nobody really seemed to bring awareness about this site, until a Youtuber, named MamaMax, posted a video last year, bringing awareness to the nasty things the owners would do to children. In order to “report” an incident going on in their websites, users have a very limited reporting system. The website promises to respond back to a user's concerns, but actually bans the user from the website. The staff working under the website seems to be aware about the harassment and exploitation children have to face from adults under a website “for kids by kids”. In the FAQs, the staff seems to be mocking the children who tried to get help, by saying “Please don't be silly and try to email us a bunch of screenshots. There is a chance it will never reach us”. This is an example of people who are aware of the issue, but refuse to care. Instead, they overlook it, and make it seem like they support the idea of adults harassing children. This is another example of apps and sites that look innocent, and are advertised for kids, but are actually not safe for them. It is just a site that supports the online sexual harassment and exploitation of children.

Explicit content and the outside access of stumbling into the wrong people online, can endanger childrens mindset. To illustrate my proposal, we should consider a type of limitation, some sort of restriction that’ll limit children getting access to explicit content. In order to prevent children from seeing this, websites can consider the usage of verification checks. High end companies, such as Apple, should promote their accessibility of parental controls. This can result in parents and children having a safer and healthier relationship with the internet.