Owning a Café

According to the findings released by an Internet security specialty firm in its OnlineFamily.Norton site, “sex” and “porn” were among the hot online search topics for children in 2009.  “Sex” comes in at No. 4 for teens (13 to 18 years old) and tweens (8 to 12 years old) while “porn” comes in also at No. 4 for kids 7 years old and under.  While YouTube, Google and Facebook were the top 3 searches in the different age brackets, the coming of “sex” and “porn” in the fourth (4th) slot should raise a red flag to parents if they haven’t talked with their children about content that may not be appropriate for them, according to what Symantec said in the news release about their findings. The statement blends well with the universal initiative of protecting the children online. For the same reason, having anti-pornography filters installed in computers is an advice that should be considered by everyone.

According to the same survey, the boys’ searches centered on social networking, games, shopping, and “adult terms,” while  the girls were also interested in online social networking websites, but their searches leaned more toward music, movies, celebrities, and television shows. The findings were derived from 14.6 million searches conducted between February 2 and December 4 by users of a free OnlineFamily.Norton service that parents can use to filter or monitor their children’s Internet use.

For the i-café owners, the above-stated findings on what your young customers were searching in the internet especially the unwanted pornographic contents should make you decide to immediately install the filters that would avoid access to websites containing them. There are many free software and services available for the purpose. You just have to test which one fits your set-up. You do not have to reason the there is no local regulation that prohibits you from allowing your customers to access those sites. It is your moral responsibility to protect the children online.