Protecting Your Children in a Digital Age
The creation of the internet and its various facets—web, usenet, email, et al.—has given humanity access to innumerable amounts of information, most of which can be summoned to your screen at your whim. Google does a terrific job of organizing the internet’s vast data collection, delivering it right to your computer, and web browsers such as Firefox and Internet Explorer make the magic of the web come alive by laboring behind the scenes, transforming cryptic code into meaningful, visual information right before your eyes.
Of course, with all things in life, there are exceptions, and we have to learn to take the good with the bad; the openness, vastness, and “instant gratification” factor all inherent in the internet comes with a price. A very large percentage of the web is dedicated to mature websites, reason enough to disconnect your broadband when your kids are using the PC. If that weren’t enough bad news, the anonymity of the internet and web has created an entire culture of digital chameleons, allowing people to pretty much say anything about themselves regardless of the validity of their claim, people your children have no business chatting with. Let’s go through some tips to keep your kids safe online.
Sniffing Out Digital Tracks
Most kids nowadays seem to be born with an uncanny grasp of technology, as if their DNA were encoded in pure binary code. So, to be one step ahead of your children, all parents should educate themselves. Firefox is growing more and more popular on a daily basis; it should absolutely be your default web browser, and it’s a terrific browser because it makes it extremely easy to view the surfing activities of its users. Clicking on the History menu item will drop down a menu of all recently browsed websites. This is a good way to see what websites your children are browsing.
If you’ve set Firefox to not automatically clear out its history and cache, then you should be suspicious if the history menu is always mysteriously empty, a sign of possible track covering. Surfing on over to google.com and clicking on the query text box might drop down a history menu for past search queries, a good indicator of possible inappropriate web surfing if any sordid terms are found.
Keep Your Computer in the Family Room
The best place to keep the family computer is in a visible, open space, like the family or living room. With your computer screen always in plain view, you’ll have more control over monitoring what your children do online. Also, setting designated “computer time” is a good idea so that you’ll always know when your children are using the computer. When your kids are doing their homework on the computer offline—typing an essay or making a power point presentation etc.—unplug your internet connection so as to silence the temptation to surf around during homework time.
Parental Controls Software
If you need more parental controls on your PC, Net Nanny is a popular choice; it acts as a filtering tool that scans all data that enters your home from the internet. Net Nanny comes with a wide array of options and settings, so you can finely tune the amount of control it has over incoming and outgoing data.
Keeping your children safe while they surf the web is every parent’s job. With a little technical knowledge, you can safeguard your kids from the unseemly side of the internet, making their computer time a more healthful, productive experience.
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