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You may be wondering how you can make the Internet safe for your kids. You'd like to protect them from the objectionable sites and emails that would be so easy for them to find. Perhaps you'd like to buy a solution that you can use on your computer that will not allow them to look at objectionable sites, yet will allow them to freely browse. I have sad news for you--there is no such perfect solution. There are solutions out there, such as NetNanny, that block any site mentioning one of a list of objectionable words. The result can be funny, such as blocking the word "arm," and at the same time can drive you nuts if you really want to do regular research on, say, breast cancer. But these word-blocking solutions are no good at all at blocking objectionable photo sites that have no objectionable words attached. Ask me how I know? My teenage son figured it out. He just went to Google Images and started looking. Your son could do that too. And the objectionable sites he found weren't blocked by NetNanny, which was turned on. In fact, the filter program could never block these sites because it searches for words. It can't evaluate pictures. So, how can you protect your child? * Keep your computers where you can monitor what the kids are doing. Put them in the kitchen or wherever YOU are. *To log on, anyone who is not an adult will have to ask an adult to input the password, giving permission in this way. *Require the child to log off when he is done. Now the password is required for the next session. *Use a filter like NetNanny. It will help when your back is turned. *Kids should be told what you expect from them, and the consequences of disobedience. *Unplug the Internet cables if the child doens't need to access the Internet for his task. *Give younger kids your own email address to use. This protects them from objectionable spam. Give teens an email address, but instruct them to give it out only to people they know personally. Your watchfulness will pay off. Your children will be protected from what they should not see, and they will also learn good habits for using the Internet as adults.
Article Source: http://www.just-article.com
Phyllis Wheeler, the Computer Lady, offers this advice for parents. She also furnishes homeschool computer courses via MotherboardBooks.com, which has offered do-it-yourself computer science courses for kids and teens since 2003.
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