Internet Safety for Your Kids

Here’s the issue: how to be sure your kids are safe from viewing objectionable sites when they are searching the Internet. After all, you don’t want them to stumble across something they should not see.

Maybe you are hoping to buy a program for your computer that blocks objectionable sites, but will allow them to do the research you want them to do.

Here’s the bad news: filtering programs can’t do the job by themselves. NentNanny and other applications like it search for certain words in the Web site your child is clicking on. Simple words like “belly” can be targets for blocking, causing frustration, while research on “breast cancer” may be impossible.

But programs that look for words fail completely if the site has no objectionable words–only objectionable photos. My teenage son figured this out. He used Google Images to look for objectionable sites. He found them despite the fact that our filter, NetNanny, was turned on.

The software could not have detected the objectionable photos, since NetNanny and similar software look for objectionable words. They are not able to evaluate pictures.

So, what can you as a parent do?

* 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.

*Ensure that the kid logs off when the computer session is over, or turns the computer off. This makes the password required for the next session.

*Use a filter like NetNanny. It will help when your back is turned.

*Make sure the kids know you will punish them if they are looking at objectionable sites. Visit their terminals at unpredictable times.

*Unplug the Internet cables if the child doens’t need to access the Internet for his task.

*Make younger kids use your email address. Then you can be sure to delete that filth that lands in the inbox from time to time. Or, as the kids get older, give them their own but instruct them to give out their address only to trusted friends.

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.