Rheingold Tells Parents to Talk to Children Rather Than Censor Them Online

The internet is a wonderful place, especially when you consider that at least 60% of it is of a pornographic nature. Most parents, not wanting their children to be jaded by the porn, decided to install web filters to eliminate all but the sneakiest porn. However, Rheinegold, the author of The Virtual Community, thinks that this is not the best approach. He tells a compulsive community of people who devote all their time and money to sheltering their children that the best protection against the evils of the internet is not to eliminate it. Instead, he says, parents need to talk to children about what they can see online, and take an active role in their online habits. Censoring kids from the real world does more than leave these kids unprepared for the barrage they will face when their parental protection is relinquished. Censoring these children form the real world also puts them in a bad relationship with their parents.