I enjoy reading technology news and launch announcements are an especially wonderful thing…well, usually.
I was catching up on the TechCrunch feed when I came across this announcement about the launch of SafetyWeb, “a service that will target parents who want to know what their kids are up to online.” Adds TechCrunch:
The key goals are to understand how to interpret real v. perceived threats to children/teens, and also report back any anomalies that the parents should be aware of. For example, if they friend someone who is a known sex offender, etc. [highlight is mine]
The comments — appropriately seeded with supporters of the service developers — are a hoot a minute:
- I’m a doctor in Hawaii, and the stories I hear about kids are frightening.
- It’s hard enough to raise kids in the 21st Century especially in a city like New York. It’s good to know that there will be a one-stop site where I can get an aggregated view of what my kids are up to digitally.
- I’ve lived through the last 10 yrs trying to figure out what my kids were doing online, why has it taken so long for someone to finally do this?
- Parents need something to help them keep up with their kids online, I’d call this service a necessity for any responsible parent.
That’s right: if you don’t hand over your child’s information to a 3rd party tech site without your child’s knowledge or permission, you are not a responsible parent.
Perhaps if I hadn’t recently seen Sarah Haskins’ Target Women on how Broadview Security and related security companies foster fear to sell their services, I’d have been more receptive to the fear-mill. Says Sarah, tongue-in-cheek, “In the peaceful era that we live in, it’s easy to forget that someone is always lurking outside, planning to rape you.”
Really, the more likely application of the SafetyWeb service would be this, from a TechCrunch reader:
This site sounds genius – and there’s definitely a need for it. Recently I called my sister to inform her that her 19-year old son (my facebook friend) was engaged!!! She had no idea.
Now that’s perversion.
