Last August 14, 2010 at the Victory Center, Upper Level Promenade Mall, Greenhills Shopping Center, the members of Web Safety for Parents Philippines held its second free seminar regarding "Keeping Your Kids Safe Online". The speakers were Sonnie Santos, Carlo Ople and Chay Mondejar Saputil. The seminar covered the following topics:
•Malicious application on the loose at Facebook
•Kids Chat/Net Lingo
•Setting up open dns account to block harmful sites.
Sonnie Santos is a social web and human resource strategist, a micro entrepreneur and lecturer but most of all he is a father and a loving husband to his wife. He is also a future pastor.
Chay Mondejar-Saputil is Principal Consultant of Chimes Consulting focusing on the Digital Strategy Practice. Most importantly, she is the doting mother of her three children (two girls and one boy).
Last but not the least, Carlo Ople is currently an executive in the leading online gaming publisher in the Philippines - Level Up Inc. He also started his own consultancy company, Evident Inc., which specializes in New Media and Digital Marketing. He recently got married to his now beautiful wife, Mrs. Michelle Orosa-Ople.
I attended the seminar with the idea that this is something I have to learn soon especially that my son is already very familiar in using several electronic gadgets that have built-in internet access. Fortunately, my son would still prefer to read a book than surf in the computer; nonetheless, one cannot dismiss the fact that at this age and time computer literacy is a must for our kids and future generations.
So what I can do as a parent to help my son become a responsible computer user? That is the main question I looked for in this seminar.
In a nutshell, what I understood was that there are several parental restrictions and privacy settings we can set-up for children to prevent them from being exposed in certain material and people in the Internet that is not suitable for their age. I think the concept can be compared to watching a PG or R-rated movie. For example, for those who have watched the movie "Avatar" would say that it's a great movie especially with the amazing CG effects. However, as a teacher and a parent will you let your toddler watch this movie? It's not just because of the violent scenes but do you really think he can understand the story? In my opinion, I think this child wouldn't. To be honest, I didn't even allow my 9-year-old son to watch it yet although most of his classmates (according to my son) claimed they watched it with their parents. Don't get me wrong. It's a great movie but I'll save it for another few years. For now, I'll let him enjoy movies such as Fantasia and Ghibli movies like Totoro and Ponyo.
Honestly, the parental restrictions Chay discussed caused me to nosebleed. I do update my anti-virus every week as per my husband's advice but I have no idea how to protect my child or myself from spywares, phishers and other malicious programs in the computer. I left that sole responsibility to my husband. So when I went home to discuss the things I learned from the seminar using my favorite terms such as "You know hun those "thingies" and "watchamacallits". I was somehow not surprised when he got the correct names of those programs more than I will ever do.
I guess the most powerful talk from me at that time is Mr. Ople's personal recount of how he overcame his addiction in on-line gaming. I have seen the same issues from my personal relations and also in my students which caused a lot of concerns both in the school and at home.
Hence, I left the seminar hopeful and inspired that in my own way I can help spread the word of these advocates to the academe where I belong. We need more people thinking that there is an abundance rather than scarcity. This country needs more people who will divert from the crab-mentality that has suppressed just too many could-have-been successes in life because we were afraid nothing will be left for us. This people gave out information some people would have charged you an amount. They give access to their materials how to apply the web safety precautions they discussed for free. They give prizes to the attendees who won in their raffle and we have an overflowing coffee and a very comfortable seminar room. All because this people believe in the notion that if you believe in something and you act on it, it will happen.
I highly suggest that you attend their upcoming seminars. Let's be realistic something like this will not remain free for a long time unless I guess if they have benefactors who will subsidize the fees for the attendees all the time. So again act, now sign-up for the seminar and educate yourself how can you offer web safety protection to your child.
For more information about this organization and for upcoming schedule of free seminars, visit http://www.websafetyforparents.org/
Below is the list of seminar updates as of August 15, 2010:
Seminars
July 10, 2010
Microsoft Auditorium
6750 Ayala Ave. Makati, City
August 14, 2010
Victory Center
Upper Level, Promenade Mall, Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan City
August 28, 2010
Philippine Alliance Christian School
Pasay City
August 31, 2010
WWCF Auditorium
ACCM Bldg., 102 Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City
September 14, 2010
WWCF Auditorium
ACCM Bldg., 102 Valero St., Salcedo Village, Makati City
September 25, 2010
CCF Auditorium
St. Francis Square, Julia Vargas Ave., Mandaluyong City
You can also contact them in the following sites:
1. e-mail Sonnie at skopun@gmail.com
2. Our website: http://websafetyforparents.org
3. Facebook: http://facebook.com/web.safety.philippines
4. Twitter: http://twitter.com/websafetyphil
5. Youtube: http://youtube.com/websafetyphil
6. Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/web-safety-philippines
I hope there are more seminars and people like this group featured in this blog. If your goal is to add value to people's lives to make this world a better place to live in then welcome aboard, you are in the right crowd.
Have a marvelous day!
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