Does Blogging have an evil side?
March 29, 2009 by Sam Garnebo
Filed under Online Colleges
Blogs have become incredibly popular over the years, and it seems thought everyone from teenagers to business owners are blogging. A blog is a web-based publishing system that basically acts as an online journal. Anyone can sign up for a free blog account and post content ranging from text and images to music and videos.
To someone who wants to market their product, blogs are great avenues to utilize, if you just want the world to know whatever you feel like expressing to them, go right ahead. However, the possibilities do not end there, they also open the door for anyone who wants to promote porn, or much worse, sexually solicit children.
Blogs used for porn
Different sites offer many different topics for their blogs. People will use their blog for passing aroung the latest juicy celebrity gossip, or as a means to further those interested in the knowledge of technology, but it also Allows numerous people the ability to ditsribute pornography.
In some respects blogging could be called nothing more than simply a website, which like other websites, it has the capability of containing pornography just the same as a porn site. The world wide web has made it so anyone can come across a porn containing blog, even children.
Even some of the most popular blogging platforms, such as WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal, are commonly used to advertise porn. As a member of such a community, all a child has to do is type a few explicit keywords into the built-in search engine and then roam through an abundance of obscene content. Sadly, most of these sites leave pornographic content wide open for all to view, with no security mechanisms in place to protect children.
Online Predators are Blogging
As with most anything in the world there is a negative to all positives. As if porn entering the minds of children through these porn blogs wasn’t quite bad enough, there is yet a more serious danger yet, pedophiles.
Children that have blogs are targets of these predators who will post notes on the sight and appear as a friend. With their fake profile a child can be deceived into thinking an adult pedophile is the child’s age in order to blend right in.
What makes this scenario even more potentially dangerous is the fact that so many children openly publish photos and other identifying details on their blog page. Because most of these platforms offer a free service, they are typically un-moderated, leaving children with no way to differentiate genuine readers from online predators.
Children need to be protected.
It is vital to make sure your children understand all the dangers that come along with blogging. They should realize that is never acceptable to post personal information, as anyone can view it and try to contact them.
If you do allow your child to participate in a blog, be sure to frequently monitor their activities and keep that participation to a minimum.
For those wise parents who wish not to take any chances, it is good advice for you to get yourself a good internet filtering software. This tool will allow you to control where your child surfs as well as where he blogs, allowing you to block out porn as well as the predator who wants YOUR child.