A TEENAGE girl who posts nude photos of herself in her online diary; a boy who is addicted to Japanese adult anime – these were a few of the horror tales that came up in a talk when the Parents Advisory Group for the Internet (PAGi) met unionists recently.

The accounts that PAGi volunteer Colin Ong gave shocked parents, but also drove home the point that they needed to be more aware of what their children were doing or seeing on the Net.

Organised by the NTUC Women’s Committee, the talk at the Hotel Inter-Continental on June 26 drew about 100 participants, mostly concerned parents from various unions who wanted to know more about the Internet and its dangers.

The tips and warnings that Mr Ong gave could not come from a better person. Mr Ong himself was once an Internet addict, he declared. Surfing the Internet up to 18 hours a day, he created headlines when his addiction was featured in The New Paper several years ago.

Committed to helping parents

Now an avid Internet researcher, he is committed to helping parents learn more about the Internet and the effect it has, particularly on young, vulnerable children.

In the 75-minute talk, he outlined the various technologies that enabled Internet users to go anywhere in the world, see anything, and communicate with anyone. The audience were amazed, for instance, to find out that their kids could potentially continue an online chat even when they logged off the computer – by using their mobile phones.

And it takes just a mere matter of seconds to send a multimedia messaging service (MMS) picture from a mobile phone and post it on the Internet, where anyone can see it. Strangers, warned Mr Ong, could hence easily prey on unsuspecting teenagers in online chatrooms by getting them to post their pictures on the Internet.

Even students using the Internet for innocent purposes could be lured into the darker corners of the World Wide Web. Said Mr Ong: “Students use search engines while doing research for projects. From search engines, they are then linked to websites that are pornographic or gambling in nature.”

New dangers

One fairly new trend that the PAGi volunteer introduced to the listening parents was “blogging”: instead of traditional diaries, people are now putting their thoughts online, giving strangers access to sometimes sensitive details.

Mr Ong said: “Kids don’t know this, but putting up too much personal information could prove dangerous to them.” Robbers, for instance, could gain access to this information.

In one case, a distraught father approached the PAGi volunteer for help after he discovered his daughter’s nude photos in her online diary. He had done a search of her name as a joke, and was shocked to find the photos. Mr Ong had to counsel the parent and stress that constant communication was the key to a happy relationship between parent and child.

Internet safety, the right way

Indeed, “blogging” and online gambling have become the two biggest online threats today, Mr Ong said, giving an example of a teenager who used his father’s credit card to gamble online. The teen managed to do this undetected for six months, until his winning streak came to a halt one day.

With all these dangers seemingly lurking on the Internet, parents might be tempted to simply keep their children away from the computer. But Mr Ong stressed that this was not the answer.

What parents should do is maintain a strong relationship with their children and educate them on using the Internet.

Mr Ong himself, who has a six-year-old daughter and a second child on the way, plans to introduce his older child to the Internet soon.

Informative session

All these information and advice were an eye-opener for all who attended Mr Ong’s talk. They also picked up useful tips from him during the question-and-answer session, which saw parents raise concerns about the safety of using credit cards online and ask whether it was illegal to download materials from the Internet.

Ms Alice Huang, Chairman of the women’s sub-committee which organised the event, said: “Even though it was a serious topic, Mr Ong made the talk quite light-hearted and easy to follow. Most of us were a bit surprised that posting a mere photo online could cost so much harm.”

The talk certainly struck a chord with many of the parents, some of whom had faced similar challenges themselves.

Ms Dorothy Chia, General Treasurer of DBS Staff Union (DBSSU), related how her son, then 13, had once indulged in online chatting, and exceeded the number of hours allotted under the family’s Internet plan. When the bill came, Mrs Chia gave her son a dressing down. Now 19 and wiser, her son no longer spends so much time online.

Another mother, Ms Karen Ang, an administrator with DBS and DBSSU Exco member, is determined to ensure that her two sons, aged 13 and 11, use the Internet safely. Both of them began using the Internet at the age of 11, mainly for school projects.

Instead of setting a limit on the number of hours her children can surf a day, she prefers to educate them on the dangers of the Internet. “It’s all about instilling into them the right values on a day-by-day basis,” she said. “I tell them about the safe websites they can visit and the ones they should avoid.”

Surfing tips for kids

•Do not give out photographs and too much personal information of yourself.

•Do not meet online people in real life, unless you’re in a public place and are accompanied
by someone else.

•Do not open e-mails or files from strangers. These may contain viruses that may harm your computer. Delete them.

•Do not give out your Internet password to anyone.

For parental tips on using the Internet safely, visit www.getnetwise.org