You know what worries me? Kids. No seriously, they do worry me, especially kids who are allowed to play online without supervision. Now, I am admittedly a little old school when it comes to raising kids but I think the Internet is too dangerous to just let kids roam with no supervision. The recent news on myspace is a prime example of the dangers kids face online. I am not in either camp that say both that "myspace is evil and should be shut down", or that "it doesn’t matter, kid will be kids." I am somewhere in the middle. I have read numerous articles on how the industry isn’t doing enough to keep kids safe. Security pundits say that it is the computer operating system manufacturers that should be keeping kids off the bad part of the net.

So my question to you (almighty reader) is this: Is it Microsoft’s responsibility to keep kids safe by adding software, user controls, and other such methods to their OS? In the end I think it comes down to parents and/or guardians. The software can only do so much, and it can help parents keep track of kids online activities, but the truth is that kids will almost always find a way around it if they want to bad enough. Am I saying we should spy on our kids? Not really. I think we should do a little (shall we say) “open-source” spying? If you told your kids that you would be monitoring their Internet usage, but that they had free reign for what they do and where they go, but that later they would have to be accountable for anything “over the line” would it work? Parents out there, can I get a big Doo-Doot?!

[Via SafeKids.com]