By Will Sturgeon, 22 July 2003 13:02
NEWS High-street electrical retailer Dixons, which owns the PC World chain, has hit out at parents for what it calls "a staggering lack of concern about children being exposed to unsuitable content and dangerous strangers online". According to research from Dixons, 33 per cent more parents install anti-virus software on the home PC than internet security controls which would protect their children from offensive content. The retailer conducted a survey in conjunction with Parents Online an initiative set up by the Department for Education and Skills and the findings make for alarming reading. Forty per cent of parents questioned said they are unconcerned about their children viewing unsuitable material online. A staggering 53 per cent said they are unconcerned about their children being contacted by strangers online - despite high-profile incidences of 'grooming' by paedophiles who prey upon children in chat rooms. More than a third of parents (38 per cent) have failed to install any safeguards on their home PC to protect their children. And this reticence is not because parents are always watching over their children's shoulders. More than a quarter (28 per cent) admitted that they never supervise their child while on the internet. John Carr, internet consultant for children's charity NCH, said: "I'm afraid I'm not at all surprised by these findings but there's no point having a go at the parents - most of them all left school before the internet really came along and many don't have cause to use it at work." He added: "How can you expect parents to educate kids about something they don't even understand themselves?" NCH is currently working with the Department for Education and Skills to encourage parents back into the classroom to bridge this digital divide which exists between them and their children. NCH is also working with 14 Comet stores nationwide to run seminars during August aimed at educating parents about the risks awaiting children online. Comet last month announced plans to pre-install web filtering software on PCs in order to help parents understand what they can do to protect their children - an example Carr urges other retailers to follow. PC World is pre-installing an advice guide for parents which will inform them about how their family PC can be run more safely.
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1. anonymous
I have to say that Dixons taking a high moral stance about parents who are not tech savvy and slating them for exposing their kids to inappropriate net dangers is very selective moralisation and I would say quite unacceptable.
What do you get from Dixons or the PC World group? They are typical of a breed of mass market PC retailers who gush specifications to those same "not tech savvy" parents who they are now slagging off for being er... "not tech savvy". They could be said to have much in common with smarmy used car sales people. For example - warranty is usually RTB (return to base) - which few people realise when they buy and technical support is at 60p upwards and usually £1 per minute, whatever and whenever the problem exists. If you go back to the store and you have already bought then that is not their problem - "ring support".
My partner (who bought her pc just before she met me) was sold a machine that sounds like a hovercraft on steroids. When she had a mouse problem I carefully read the back of her invoice for T&C's of the warranty. I can summarise it - "If something goes wrong we'll talk to you for £1 per minute then if we say it needs inspecting and you send it to us and we fix it if it's our problem in our own sweet time". In short, they gush to sell it to you and then make getting backup as unpleasant and expensive as possible while still being just about able to say they give you a warranty. They don't give you a proper WinXP disc to re-install XP if your hard drive goes pop. Wonder why? Perhaps to make even more out of the not tech savvy user. In any event, you will often find DSG sales staff have a pretty pittiful IT background and rely on being able to rattle off specs that will confuse those same not tech savvy people they are now slagging off. I replaced her mouse for her, by the way. No, I didn't buy it from DSG!
Contrast that with a specialist outfit I use - www.novatech.co.uk . They have a counter where the sales people realy do know their equipement in some detail. If you have a fault you call support on an 0845 number (it is even costing them to make the call a "lo-call"). You even get a product recovery CD-ROM with your system enabling a boot-up re-install back to a clean state.
I feel that mass market PC retailers should be a great deal more up front about what they offer. The smarmy superior smirk as they tell you "it's all in the fine print" when you look for after sales service is not impressive and certainly in my view disqualifies them from any right to slag off parents whose greatest "crime" is technical illiteracy. After all, who is going to by cyber security software from a cynical mass market retailer whose prime directive is arguably the fine print rip-off?