Parents should play the role of 'gate-keepers' to prevent children from accessing indecent or obscene material from the Internet, a conference was told.
Tik Chi-yuen, chairman of the Committee on Home-School Co-operation, warned that the information highway might carry more negative than positive influences.
Mr Tik said the Internet was flooded with 'dirty' Web sites and most were easily accessible.
'Although there are no statistics about the exact number of such sites, the probability of youngsters accessing pornographic literature or nude pictures alarms educationists.' Mr Tik urged parents to take note of the problem and pay attention to what their children were accessing.
'The young can come across addresses of adult sites from newspapers and magazines, while the others get them from their friends,' he said. 'As parents are central to each family and the effects of the Internet are far-reaching, they should practise the right to know the kind of information their children access and keep track of this technology.' Mr Tik said that it was difficult to introduce legislation or devise any computer software to regulate the flow of information on the Internet.
However, he believed that educating parents on the subject was a better way to improve the situation.