Hadeel Al-Shalchi apprehends children riding a speedy and dangerous wave The air is dank as you enter the Internet café. The front window is tinted black, making for poor lighting, even though the walls are painted bright orange. The store logo is a smiley sunshine; it beams down on eight wide-screen PCs lined up on one side facing some couches, and three large televisions. Four teenage boys are crammed on a couch, the movement of their bodies reflecting the rhythm of a game they're playing -- a wrestling or a boxing match. Crashing sounds and electronic regrets for failure interrupt their cheering and booing. On the other side, a fifth boy at a PC expertly navigates from his video game to an instant messaging, a pair of large earphones on his head. "It's the weekend and most kids are still in their homes, so it's calm in the café," explains Mustafa Osman, the manager. According to Osman, the busiest time is when the neighbouring high school is out for the day. However, the overwhelming majority of his clientele are teenage boys. They come in to play games on the computers and videos, he adds; when girls come in, it's to use chat rooms for a few hours and then leave. "Usually, this place is so packed you can't move around," says Osman. They come in, drop their bags on the floor in a pile and go right for the games. "Not all the kids are interested in computers, though. A lot of them just come to hang out." Most games involve violent action; others feature sports. For Osman, all customers -- whatever their age -- are allowed to visit any sites, except for the political, religious, or pornographic websites, as per government regulations. Chat rooms, video games, computer games and of course processing programmes are all fair game. He adds that parents hardly come into the café, and normally don't know what their children are playing or watching on the computers. "Some parents use this place as a nursery," says Osman. "They'll bring in six kids all at once, drop them off and say, 'we'll be back for them in an hour'." With the advent of DSL, a PC in each Egyptian living room, and with some youth learning the skills at school, children are riding a speedy, and sometimes dangerous, technological wave. Acquired violence from the video games, chatting with strangers online, and child pornography are just some nightmare stories parents have had to deal with when bringing a computer into the home or allowing unsupervised time in a café. Psychologist and Cairo University professor Ali Suleiman states that Internet has become a double-edged weapon, like most modern technology. While the Internet use among the young is accepted and varied -- learning about the global village, researching interesting information, playing educational games, and connecting with people -- its unsupervised use does come at a price. For him, the problem lies mainly with parents who do not understand what the Internet really is. "Many families buy computers and have DSL Internet connection available in their homes just as a social status symbol," adds Suleiman. They don't even know how to use the computer, let alone browse the web. Such families, he explains, are unable to supervise their kids due to their technological illiteracy. Selma Cook, an Australian who has lived in Cairo for 13 years, says her days of leaving the kids alone with the computer are over. As a single mother raising two of her children here in Egypt, she was forced many times to go to work and leave the kids at home. About a year ago she gave her 11-year-old daughter permission to create an account on MSN messenger. On this free instant messaging programme, people with an account can "add" each other and send each other notes and files online. "MSN used to be a good way for the kids and I to communicate while I was at work since we could both be online at the same time," says Cook. She says she always does spot checks on her daughter's MSN e-mail account and Friends list. "I go through the list and ask questions," says Cook. "'Have you met this person? Do you physically know where this person lives? What do you know about this person?' If she answers No to any of my questions, or even knows very little about someone -- Delete." Recently, Cook says, she had to delete over 50 contacts her daughter had added without knowing who they were. When Cook went into the e-mail address attached to the messenger account, she found e-mails from people inviting her daughter to send pictures of herself and to join chat rooms and forums. Cook says many of these strangers were residents of Egypt, so they could have found out where her daughter lives. She says her daughter couldn't understand why this was dangerous or unacceptable. Her daughter has now been banned from Internet use until further notice. Suleiman says Cook's daughter's attitude is typical, since children do not have the ability to tell good from bad. He says if children continue without guidance and spend much time navigating sites whose content reflects a picture of life different from the culture in which they live, they may suffer from an identity crisis. They see another, attractive culture on the Internet that isn't the same as the Middle East and they begin to hate their own culture, feeling alienated from their community and judging it to be backward. Cook says her solution is to keep her children as busy as possible. Not only do they attend a regular day school, she also has them on the Australian home schooling curriculum which they complete in the house under her supervision. "There can't be a time when they are free. If children do not feel there are rules they begin to feel insecure, but if they know the parents are in control then they can function within acceptable boundaries. I am the mother; I have to be in control. There must be a culture of respect, trust and communication so they can keep trusting you as they get older." Riham Adel had to bring the Internet into her home because her 12-year-old daughter's schoolwork began to require it. And with the Internet, new rules had to be made: permission must be taken from either parent before going online, and it's only used for schoolwork during the week. On the weekend there can be a few hours of personal use. Like Cook's daughter, Adel's daughter was recently given permission to create an MSN account to chat with her school friends. "We set out these rules because I want to be the source of her information about the world. Whether parents like it or not, children these days are very intelligent and actually know more than we give them credit for. So I try to be her friend as much as I can; we talk a lot. This way I can at least correct mistaken information she may get from outside." Suleiman says parents need to make Internet time family time for their children to understand how to use it correctly. "When parents join their children online, then they're not totally banning the child from using the computer, but there will be discussion between parent and child," says Suleiman. The child can play and enjoy himself, but can make a smooth transition back into reality. "This way, he will surely remain psychologically stable," concluded Suleiman.
