Protect Your Children: Take Back Control of Online Activites

New York, NY (PRWeb) March 23, 2007 -- Federal Judge Blocks Child Online Protection Act (COPA); Holds Parents 100% Responsible for Children's Internet Activities

Recent News:
· A federal court judge has blocked the 1998 law, known as the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), that makes it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access "harmful" material. In the recent ruling, the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech.
· Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) are proposing legislation that that would require sex offenders to register their online addresses with a national database the same way they must now register their home addresses. The proposal would send sex offenders back to jail for using unauthorized e-mail addresses or failing to report changes in their information.

The recent blocking of 1998's Child Online Protection Act shifts 100% of the responsibility and accountability for minors to their parents and guardians. It is now easier for young Internet users to encounter potentially dangerous web content and those who are within.

"Essentially, this ruling says that operators of websites containing adult material are no longer required to verify the age of those that access those sites," says Pandora Corporation founding partner, James Leasure. "Instead, the court ruled specifically that parents need to step up and take responsibility for their children's online activity. This can be a huge burden, especially with record numbers of households where both parents work and children are often unsupervised after school."

News stories such as Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" series do a great job of informing parents about the dangers online, but they do little in preventing tragedies from occurring. Current statistics show that 1 out of 5 children are contacted by some sort of Internet predator while online.

"Issues like these are the exact reason we are here," says Leasure. "We agree that parents have a responsibility to help their children make positive choices, but we also understand that today's parents need all the help they can get."

In this case, "help" means reliable tools and informative tips that will make the job easy for parents and schools to safeguard the online activities of their kids.

PC Pandora is part of the new generation of software designed to allow parents, guardians and teachers the ability to monitor and control PC activity by children. Designed to operate either silently or in the open, monitoring software allows the administrator of any given computer to create a visual record of that machine's usage. It also has site-blocking capability, plus time scheduling and parent notification functions to help parents curb their children's Internet activities.

"PC Pandora is the helping hand that parents and schools are looking for," continues Leasure. "The law is now telling parents to take control of their children's online activity, but we realize that's much easier said than done. The sheer scope of online material makes asking the right questions almost impossible without the right information, and our software is designed to not only help parents get that information, but also to help them make smart decisions about what to allow or not allow."

Not limited to family desktops, monitoring software has a wide range of uses, including corporate security, intellectual property protection and infidelity detection.

More Alarming Stats Concerning Kids' Online Activity:

+ According to 2006's Online Victimization of Youth: Five Years Later report, when teens receive messages online from someone they don't know, 40% reported that they'll usually reply and chat with that person. Only 18% said they would tell an adult about the encounter.

+ The same report shows that teens have been exposed to the Internet's accompanying potential risks:
-- 71% reported receiving messages online from someone they don't know
-- 45% have been asked for personal information by someone they don't know
-- 30% have considered meeting someone that they've only talked to online
-- 14% have actually met a person face-to-face they they've only spoken to over the Internet

+ 71% of all parents stop monitoring their child's use of the Internet after the child turns 14, not knowing that 72% of all Internet-related missing children are 15 years of age or older. - Dist. Attny, County of Los Angeles

+ According to a 2004 survey conducted by St. Bernard Software of 200 technology decision-makers from small, medium and large school districts in suburban, rural and urban settings in 41 states: 48% estimate their students spend more than two hours per week on the Internet during school hours and 59% Report incidents of students accessing inappropriate Web content in the past year.

Note: This story is being brought to you directly from the Pandora Corporation. Software samples are available; interviews can be conducted via phone; Windows Media Player video files are available to use as B-roll. More information can be found online at www.pcpandora.com.

About PC Pandora: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal - to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. First released in 2005, PC Pandora has been constantly upgraded to industry-leading specifications and has received accolades from users, reviewers and even school districts and law enforcement agencies, who use the program to help in the day-to-day supervision of the children and citizens they are charged with protecting. With the release of Windows Vista-compatible version 4.2 and a newly upgraded interactive website, PC Pandora has vaulted into a leadership position by boasting a combination of features that are unparalleled in the monitoring industry.

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