This blog is about porn. Most of you already know (I think this goes in the “Duh!” category) that online porn is widely available. An estimated 12% of all websites are porn-related. You may also know that most people will encounter online porn by the age of 11. Also, two-thirds of online porn viewers are male. In the latest edition of the Symantec Internet Security Threat Report we also learn that the largest category of malicious links from search is for porn.
Symantec researchers evaluated common search terms and those that resulted in visits to malicious websites. Of those, 49% belonged to a category described as “Adult entertainment”.
From the ISTR: “One reason why attackers target adult websites is that many of these sites act as Web portals that aggregate the content of numerous other sites without any direct association with them. Given this, visitors to such portals may be more accepting of content from unknown or unfamiliar sources.”
Often, when a user links to a malicious adult entertainment site they are prompted to download a video codec, or program, to be able to view the video content. The download which may include a video or related component will likely include malware as well.
So, my slightly silly conclusion is:
- If you are a parent, and
- If you have a son over age 11, and
- If you wish to keep your family computers free of malware, then
You should consider installing Norton Online Family to monitor your children’s use of search terms and their online video viewing habits.
Norton Online Family is free (though the fee-based Premium version includes video activity details) and since there’s no secrecy about its presence on the computer, your children will know that it’s guiding their online experience according to your personalized House Rules.
Kids will search for porn, even if they don’t fully understand what they are looking for (yet.) We saw this in the 2009 Norton Online Family 100 Top Searches study. Your job is to make sure that your kids stay safe online and that even normal adolescent (or younger) curiosity shouldn’t be harmful both to their developing sexuality and your family computers.
Make sure you discuss with your children (not just your pre-teen boys) your family preferences and rules about Internet use. Talk about online porn and how easily you can run into it and other adult content that may be quite disturbing. Using a parental control program like Norton Online Family can help reinforce family rules and safety guidelines, allowing you to filter out potentially dangerous adult sites. And since Sunday is the top day for online porn viewing (according to one source), I’d suggest you get Norton Online Family set up before the weekend!
You and your kids may not read the entire Internet Security Threat Report but here’s a nice summary video with the highlights.