What Just Happened ?

Pamela's outrage is clearly evident in the letter to her ISP, and she is not alone. In fact, according to research conducted for Consumer Reports WebWatch in 2005, nearly all adult Internet users feel that the ease with which you can stumble across sexually explicit material is a problem; 82 percent feel that it is a major problem. Further, 86 percent of all adults online believe there should be a Web site rating system similar to those used for movies and video games . What might surprise you more is that this attitude is also shared by teens and younger children.

About 25 percent of young people who use the Internet are exposed to unsolicited sexual material in a year, although that number might be deceptively low because most don't tell. Their silence reflects not only their shock and embarrassment but also a concern that they might be blamed for doing something wrong if they come forward (Finkelhor et al., 2000).

Matt is an exception in that he talked to his parents about what happened. Only 39 percent of teens tell their parents when they encounter pornography online, and in 44 percent of incidents, the teens tell no one at all (Finkelhor et al., 2000).

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See Chapter 17, "Talking About Safety," for advice about creating an environment where it is safe for your child to tell you when a problem occurs.

Although Pamela was frustrated with her service provider, most reputable companies work hard to improve protections and provide settings that enable users to manage their online experience in accordance with their own lifestyles and values. Still, people make many assumptions about the default protections that software companies or Internet service providers have put in place, as Pamela and her family found out the hard way.

In reality, many companies do not test their software for safety at all. They develop cool features and then make them available without providing adequate instructions for their safe use. Sometimes a software company's rush to beat a competitor to market with new features takes precedence over providing products that have been tested for safety.

Consumers of all ages navely believe that software and online services are safe because they assume software companies spend a great deal of time anticipating how people might abuse their products. Just as you can't assume that your school is spending significant time instructing your children on how to use the Internet safely, it is unrealistic to assume that software manufacturers could possibly account for every vagary of human behavior when producing software features. You are still the best first line of defense when using technology products and services.