 |
Our members are waiting for you...
|
|
| Protect Your Children: Keep Them Away from Adult Sites |
|
|
|
In our continuous efforts to make your time on our site as fun and safe as possible, we have created this information to help parents understand how to protect their children from inappropriate adult material.
To protect your kids against exposure to inappropriate material install parental control software on your computer. Some of the best-known and respected parental control software packages are CyberPatrol, Net Nanny and Safety Surf. You will find links to download this software at the bottom of this page. Also, some Internet Service Providers, the companies that let you connect to the Internet, provide content filtering as part of their service. Check with your ISP to see if this is an option they have available.
Most Parental control software works by blocking access to particular websites. In most instances, when you buy the software it already contains a large list of sites that are not suitable for children. You can then update the software through the manufacturer's website or, in some cases, the software will update itself automatically.
You can also block sites based on keywords, such as "sex" or "violence".
Since there may be only one computer in your household and you could be using the same computer as the children, you can set up the system to filter content during certain hours of the day, such as when you are at work and not around to supervise your children's web surfing. You can also setup the system to create a password, that only you know, to override the restrictions.
Some programmes can also block personal information, such as name, address and phone number, from being sent from your computer. This is an excellent way to protect children from potential online predators.
Many software programmes allow you to create different levels of security and filtering based on the different ages of the computer's users. Children can be given high security and heavy content filtering, but when you log on to the machine, you can set it not to filter any content at all.
One thing to remember is that by installing filtering software on your computer, you might also restrict childrens' access to legitimate sites. This is especially true if you rely on keywords (such as "sex") for blocking. Certain keywords appear on legitimate news and information sites, so it is best to experiment with different settings when configuring the filter controls.
Installing filtering software is no guarantee that children will not be exposed to some inappropriate material online. New websites pop up everyday, so it is important to keep your software up to date. Also, learn how your internet browser software works so that you can check the sites your family has visited (this is the "History" feature, which displays a list of websites visited by the web browser).
Talking to your children about the possible dangers that exist on the internet and supervising their web surfing are still the best ways to protect them.
Some key general Internet related safety points for your children:
1. Tell them to never give out personal information about themselves or the family to strangers they might meet online or in a chat room.
2. Remind them that it is easy for people to pretend to be someone else online. They can easily change their name, age and gender in an effort to get close to children.
3. Teach them that they should never meet a new online friend without an adult present.
4. Tell them to never give out their picture to a stranger. Also, if they ever get a picture with sexual content, or something they find disturbing, that they should get off the computer immediately and tell you about it.
5. Let them know that if they encounter something or someone dangerous that they can tell you about it and that you will not blame them or get cross.
Here are some sites where you can get parental control software:
ICRAplus (free)
http://www.icra.org/icraplus/
CyberPatrol
http://www.cyberpatrol.com/
Safety Surf
http://www.safetysurf.com/
A good Internet safety information site for both kids and adults is GetNetWise.org:
http://kids.getnetwise.org/
|
|
