The Internet has unequivocally become a necessitous element for us in the modern world, and children are not excluded. It is undeniably the most knowledgeable tool in the history of mankind. However, beyond any doubt, it can very well pass off as one ultra powerful teacher of evil.
Where on the Internet would you most likely go to in order to start on most researches, to search for any images, or merely to clear any doubts?
I would go to Google.
Just to proof my point, I went on to ask 10 other random strangers in the library this question as I was writing this entry.
Without any biased prompts from me, 9 out of 10 of them gave the same answer as I did. Except for one who was trying to funny and told me he would go to the library.
Right.
Indeed, there really isn’t many other search engines around which can beat Google for now. Moreover, according to market research published by Comscore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the world, with a market share of 65.6% in the United States, and 57% in Singapore.
For more information on Google, you can take a look at the following websites:
http://www.gadgetmedia.co.cc/2010/12/google-search-engine.html
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/googles-market-share-in-your-country.html
However, just 3 days ago, Google almost made me lose my job.
I am a part-time primary school tutor, and I have this 7 years old Korean boy as one of my tutees. As he had lived in Korea for most of his life, he is not very proficient in his English. I, on the other hand, am not proficient in Korean either. Therefore, what I sometimes did to explain certain vocabularies to him is to type the words on Google images, so that he can see the exact images of them.
Last Wednesday, he asked me what is a babysitter. So, as usual, I used his desktop and typed in the word, “babysitter” on Google images.
And to my horror, almost 50% of the images shown were pornographic!
You guys have to see it yourselves
http://www.google.com.sg/images?hl=en&safe=off&gbv=2&q=babysitter&psj=1&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=609
Of course, my tutee saw everything. Not for long though, as I quickly clicked on the “x” button. And just a few seconds later, his mother came into the room to pass me a glass of water.
Close, super close!
It was partially my fault though; I did not check if the Google Safesearch was on. But come on, that was definitely still an unpleasant surprise at that time.
More importantly, this experience did not merely come as an unpleasant surprise, but it gave me some thoughts on the possible negative effects of the Internet on children too. Any child can type whatever he or she wants on Google, either for learning, or merely out of curiosity. And they can also be accidentally exposed to extensive pornographic content when they type in key words that seemed to be innocent into a search engine. Moreover, it is probably really common for children to type in names of singers such as Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera as the children’s exposure to their music would probably trigger their curiosity about the celebrities. They would end up seeing more than what they should see. Worse, liking what they saw.
Really, parents should start recognizing the accessibility of the Internet to their children, and of course, the negative effects as well. They should also start coming to a realization of their ignorance and underestimation of the evils of the Internet, as much as it being a powerful source of information.
Parents, it may really be an accident these days if you catch your child sitting in front of the computer screen filled with naked woman.
