Technological limits of parental control over the Internet

The need for an effective parental control over the Internet is a worldwide issue. Cases of paedophilia disclosed by news agencies have raised the warning level of the problem. The Internet is a communication media out of the control of any national legislation; therefore it has been, since the very beginning of the World Wide Web, one of the best ways of diffusing pornography to a very wide audience. Parents start now to realize that the danger from exposing their children to unlimited Internet access can be very high. Media often refer to paedophilia as the biggest risk, but actually it is necessary to protect minors from the wider set of immoral activity. Parents can control Internet content by means of “blocking software” using different methodologies. The problem is that these systems are neither infallible nor bulletproof: children with a little software knowledge can easily disable most of them. They also raise ethical questions when they are used at school. Government action seems to be ineffective, therefore parents have to take the lead in this defensive action.