Child protection systems on the Internet

U današnje vrijeme mediji su implementirani u sve aspekte života modernog čovjeka. Oni oblikuju i definiraju našu stvarnost, nameću nam i pobijaju ideale, a što mediji nisu prikazali, gotovo da se nije ni dogodilo. No osim na odraslog čovjeka, mediji neminovno utječu i na djecu. Najmlađa populacija često je izložena (neprimjerenim) medijskim sadržajima već od najranije dobi. Zbog toga se odrasli suočavaju s raznim izazovima odgoja za medije. S jedne strane, puštajući dijete da samostalno donosi odluke pomaže njegovom samopouzdanju i autonomnosti, no s druge strane, zbog nedostatka iskustva u korištenju medija, djeca se mogu naći pred raznim opasnostima neprimjerenih sadržaja. U pronalasku „zlatne sredine“ u kojoj će dijete dobiti sve potrebne informacije te mogućnost samostalnog odlučivanja u kontroliranim uvjetima najveću ulogu ima socijalna sredina u kojoj dijete sazrijeva, odnosno roditelji. Postoji niz metoda i načina prevencije i zaštite djece od negativnih strana medija, pri čemu posebice mislimo na korištenje interneta. Te metode mogu se svrstati pod određene pedagoške pristupe, a najjednostavnije rečeno, pedagoške modele možemo podijeliti na one zabrinutije i one s više povjerenja. Zabrinutiji modeli često dijete doživljavaju kao „bespomoćno“ te raznim tehničkim postavkama i zabranama nastoje umanjiti štetne utjecaje interneta. S druge pak strane, pedagoški modeli s više povjerenja nastoje djetetu zajamčiti autonomnost u samostalnom donošenju odluka pri korištenju medija. Medijska pismenost stoga postaje krajnji cilj i produkt odgoja za medije te omogućuje djetetu da razvija „sposobnost pristupa, analize, vrednovanja i odašiljanja poruka posredstvom medija“ (Zgrabljić Rotar, 2005: 10, prema: Aufderheide, 1992).Media are nowadays incorporated in all aspects of modern people’s life. They form and define our reality, impose and refute our ideals, and one may almost say, “if not in media, it never happened”. Besides adults, media inevitably influence children. The youngest population is often exposed to (inappropriate) media contents from their earliest age. This poses different challenges for adults regarding the media upbringing of children. On one hand, allowing children to make their own choices helps them build their self-confidence and self-reliance. On the other hand, due to the lack of experience regarding the use of media, children may face various dangerous and/or inappropriate media contents. In the process of finding the “golden mean”, which would enable a child both, obtaining all the information needed and the possibility to make its own choice within the controlled constraints, the major role is played by the social surroundings in which a child matures, i.e. on its parents. A lot of means and methods for protection of children from adverse sides of media (especially of the internet) are available. These methods may be grouped according to particular pedagogic approach, and may be basically divided into the ones incorporating more worry for children and the ones based on more confidence in children. The “more worry” model often treats children as “helpless”, and tries to reduce the adverse influence of the internet through various technical settings and bans. On the other hand, “more confidence” pedagogic models seek to provide children with autonomy in making decisions regarding the internet usage. Therefore, media literacy becomes both the ultimate goal and the result of media education and enables the children to develop „… the ability for approaching, analysing, evaluating and sending messages through media“ (Zgrabljić Rotar, 2005:10, after: Aufderheide, 1992)