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Internet Safety for Your Kids

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.

I bet you would like to find a program you could buy that you could install on your computer to block objectionable content, but permit research.

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 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.

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, 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.

*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 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 computer from the Internet if the child is using a word processor or other local program only.

*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.

Tags: Internet Safety

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