07.15.08
Teen Safety: What are People Searching for on the Internet?
Yesterday I posted on teenagers and buying cars. I thought this was a pretty innocent subject.
When I checked my analytics tool I found a few visitors reached my blog by searching with some very skeptical key word phrases such as “preteen honey”, “preteen model galleries”, etc. Of course I am jumping to the conclusion that whomever entered those key words has some major issues. I could be wrong but sorry, that’s my initial gut instinct.
In fact, when I applied the Google key word search tool to my post yesterday, I entered the word, “teenager” and I was absolutely amazed and disgusted when I saw the popular search phrases on that word, such as “teenage sex” and much worse. These were not terms with just a few searches, rather there were thousands of searches.
I’m not naiive to think there aren’t a lot of very sick people out there but I guess this hit pretty close to home. As a parent, I try to do the best I can to educate my kids about Internet safety and monitor their actions. Most parents can just about turn on a computer and type an email. They have a very limited understanding of the Internet and find the whole online experience intimidating. Shouldn’t they take a concerted effort to educate themselves?
And as for Google and the major search engines that enable these searches, shouldn’t they have some responsibility here?