Free laptops help kids juggle smut, studies

Now that we are breaking down the digital divide by getting computers to children in impoverished regions of the world, let's take a look at what the kids are doing with their new laptops. It turns out they are using them the same way most of the people surfing the Net use them: searching for pornography.

A reporter for the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) found that pornographic images were stored on many of the laptops donated by the One Laptop Per Child project.

"Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials," Reuters quoted NAN as saying.

However, an observer of the One Laptop Per Child project questioned the news value of the story and the motivation behind the report.

"To focus on it this much means that the reporter really wanted a headline grabbing story or is against the project on a personal level," Wayan Vota wrote on an OLPC news site.

"No matter which, OLPC Nigeria reacted quickly and XO computers will now be fitted with filters," Vota wrote. "Porn surfing is not a technical problem to be solved with filters, it's a human nature issue addressed through a comprehensive cultural integration process."

It's probably also worth noting that the school children are also using the laptops for their stated purpose: education.

Update:This posting has been changed to correct the spelling of Wayan Vota's name. Olpcnews.com is a site independent of the OLPC project.

[gorankr]

Free laptops help kids juggle smut, studies

- correct name of the a/m person is Wayan Vota,
- he is neither representative for the One Laptop Per Child project nor in any official relation to the OLPC project
- he is owner, creator and one of the authors of his private web site olpcnews.com

[PlaceHolder]

A parent possibly?

Is it possible that these children's parents also don't have a computer, and so if the kid gets a free computer that one of the parents has used it to surf the smut?

[Hoser McMoose]

The Internet is for Porn!

"Why you think the net was born?
Porn, porn, porn!"

Seriously though, is anyone surprised? Damn near anyone who's ever surfed the slightest bit off the beaten path has run into porn, either intentionally or otherwise. And if anyone's going to find the porn, it's teenagers!

As much as we try to hide or ignore the fact, humans are sexual beings. We like sex, we like looking at sexual images, reading sexual stories, etc., and this most certainly isn't a response that waits until our 18th birthday to kick in!

[scifidc]

Internet is over-rated..

Why does everyone need to have internet access? It's just typical liberal thinking that everyone's entitled to everything good...or at least what seems to be good. Cheaper alternatives like library would serve as better investment and more of a stable educational source. It doesn't require installing wifi tower in the middle of nowhere or other kinds of technical obstacle...Does school educational information really get outdated so fast that one needs to have internet access for constant live update of new info? NOT...you are just creating unevenly balanced technical environment when providing a laptop to a place where they don't even have a decent color tv...using a computer as a means to obtain education is questionable even here in US...Can anyone honest tell me what this cheap laptop has over library books in education??

I am a tech freak and highly value early education..my chidlren are years ahead of their peers and yet, all their educational materials come from library or store bought books. They only use computer for fun games...