Creepy Ads Urge Parents to Check Kids’ Internet Usage
Images symbolize the horrifying stuff kids can see online.
— -- That's one shocking way to get parents' attention.
Terrifying photos of kids whose eyes are replaced by screaming mouths urge parents to pay attention to what their children are doing online.
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"Do you know what your kids are watching on the Internet right now?" is the campaign's tagline, created by the German ad agency Publicis Frankfurt.
The ads are part of a campaign by the nonprofit Innocence in Danger, whose mission is to end sexual exploitation of children on the Internet.
"The idea is to be truly shocking for a second and for parents to realize it just takes one second, one wrong click and children encounter online images that are truly horrifying to them," Julia von Weiler, director of Innocence in Danger's Germany chapter, told ABC News.
"And we know that children hardly ever talk about it. There was a study done in Germany that tells us only 8% of children who encounter disturbing moments online do talk about it," she added.
Popular search terms for kids include "sex" and "porn," Weiler said, meaning parents need to keep an eye on what their kids are looking up online. But many children stumble upon X-rated images by accident, so talking to kids about what they see online is important, she said.
The ad campaign went viral online but Innocence in Danger decided against hanging posters around Germany -- because they wouldn't want kids to see those images, either.
"I wouldn't feel comfortable knowing the fact that there's a poster in a bus station where school kids are," Weiler said.
The group shows the images in school meetings with teachers and parents about Internet safety.
