[WikiEN-l] Dangers to Children

Mon Feb 6 19:41:58 UTC 2006

On 2/6/06, Fred Bauder <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
>
> How much truth is there to this:
>
> The Parents for the Online Safety of Children (POSC) organization is
> worried about parents letting their children into a website that is a
> known gathering for pedophiles. Any pedophile can easily obtain a
> child's IP address and use it to locate the child's place of
> residence outside of the internet.

No, they can't IP addresses are only available for not logged in users, and
for people with CheckUser access.

Pedophiles may also solicit
> children for sex or attempt to contact them through using WikiPedia
> as a medium, or even find out their e-mail address or instant
> messenger screen name.

Parents should tell their children to never share personal details online.
Anyone using Wikipedia to initiate sexual contacts through Wikipedia will
get a very permanent ban on their person.

Since WikiPedia allows pedophiles to edit WikiPedia pages and view
> the IP addresses of children freely, we recommend that you use
> filtering software to block WikiPedia from access in your household
> or school.

We don't. Simply make an account, and their IP won't show up, or simply
don't announce your personal details when you're not logged on.

The internet is already a dangerous lurking ground for pedophiles;
> statistics show that about 1 in 5 children are solicited for sex
> online, and with the growth of the unregulated WikiPedia, that number
> can only skyrocket.

The internet is also used by murderers, and crackpot theorists...

Since WikiPedia refuses to address the issue of pedophiles within its
> ranks and the allowance of random editing to pages, we can only
> recommend parents to withhold access to WikiPedia.org for the time
> being.
>
> Excerpts from http://news.baou.com/main.php?
> action=recent&msg_recent=&rid=20679
>
> What can we practically do that would reduce any real risk? (I
> exclude fighting among ourselves in a destructive way)

Encourage anyone who is worried about their security to surf safely
http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_1600000/newsid_1607200/1607213.stm

Fred
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