Sydney, Australia – Parents are being warned not to let children use Wikipedia unsupervised after an Australian mother got a nasty surprise.
The woman was checking out the well-known childrens’ book Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh for her son. It had been recommended by a national programme to encourage children to read more, the Premier’s Reading Challenge.
However, the mother was shocked to find that Wikipedia’s online plot summary included sexual and violent acts that were definitely not in the original. The book, which describes how a group of lab rats come to the rescue of a field mouse with a sick son, is aimed at children about ten years old.
The page was changed back to the original text by Wikipedia’s internal content filtering technology after about an hour.
Mike Peel, UK chair of Wikimedia, told TG Daily that it was up to parents to show vigilance. “The internet can be a dangerous place. Wikipedia is not censored, and unfortunately there are vandals around,” he said. “There’s been a lot of discussion to work out how we can prevent this, but we haven’t come up with anything yet.”
Peel said that one answer that has been tried in the UK is to create a ‘child-friendly’ version for use in schools. “Experts have gone through it and made sure it’s safe for children. It’s available on DVDs and to download,” he said.
