How to Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet
Are you wondering how to make the Internet safe for your kids? You want them to use the Internet for research, but you don’t want them to find objectionable sites or emails.
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.
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 problem is that filter programs search for individual words. They never look at pictures, and in fact cannot.
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.
*Only the adults should know the login password. The kids will have to have permission to get on.
*Insist that your kids log off when they finish. As a result, they will need an adult to input the password the next time they want on.
*Use NetNanny or a similar filter. It can only help.
*Make sure the kids know you will punish them if they are looking at objectionable sites. Visit their terminals at unpredictable times.
*If a child is just using a word processor or some other local program, disconnect the Internet cable.
*Require younger children to use your email address. This will allow you to protect them from vicious spam. As they get older, give teens their own email address, but make sure they give it out only to friends.
If you take these measures and are watchful, you will help your teenagers withstand a temptation that is everywhere on the Internet, and get them into the habit of making good choices when sitting down to use the computer.
