Funny or Foolish?
Granted, I had to laugh a little when I read that a toddler bought a $20.000 digger online. But the next thing that crossed my mind was Internet access control. Most people know that toddlers like to explore, whether parents or guardians are there or not.
In this case the parents were still asleep when the kid went to do some exploring online, ending up buying a really expensive (and totally unnecessary) digger. I wondered how this could have happened. I can totally understand that the three-year-old went out of bed and switched on the computer. Kids get smarter by the minute and (unlike me) they grow up with the technology most of us had to learn at a later age.
This girl obviously knew what she was doing, or at least knew her way around the Internet and the computer. So what I don’t get is why there isn’t some kind of Internet access control / children’s lock in place. It doesn’t take much to set it up and it’s a lot safer for everyone. Parents don’t have to wonder what websites their children might visit while unsupervised and children won’t be able to pull stunts like this one, or end up in worse situations.
Yes it’s kind of funny this happened, yes they have a great story for a 21st birthday, yes the problem is solved. But the foolishness of unsupervised / uncontrolled Internet access is much larger than the funniness of it. There are so many predators out there trying to pray on innocent people, especially children. I don’t even want to think what could have happened. Sure, she’s only 3 now, but she’s obviously a very bright child so she might have ended up on some really unsafe websites instead.
Let’s just hope this is an eye-opener to people, making them realize children are bright, brighter than we give them credit for. So, as weird or unrealistic as it might sound, they need protection and access control can really help keeping them away from things you don’t want them to see or do online.
5 Comments on "Funny or Foolish?"
It’s pretty scary that kids can navigate through the internet so easily. There are a lot of scary things out there. I think password protecting the computer when you’re not using it and supervising children while they are playing on the computer is a good idea.
Um, parental supervision, where is it? It’s not hard to password lock the computer and programs on it – not doing so is simply irresponsible parenting.
Adding a Windows log on password and the mother signing out of her Trade Me account would have prevented the incident from happening .
I wondered the same thing when I read that article. Luke is right, if the parents had logged out of the TradeMe account it could not have happened. No three year old, regardless of how clever they are, would be able to guess a password, surely.
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Kids that age should have no access to the internet at all.
Yes I too laughed, but it just goes to show that a lot of people don’t seem to know what damage can be done.