Press Release Summary = Selects what programs to stop or to run on your or your child\'s PC
Press Release Body = Every parent's worst internet nightmare is to find their son or daughter looking at pornographic material, or worse, interacting with child molesters online. To protect our children, we must utilize three methods of control. Software content filters are a good first step, but only when we supplement them with good parenting as well. By situating family computers in a public place and asking our children the same questions we ask when they go out with friends, we create a three-pronged assault on child predators and ensure the safe online experience that our children deserve. The most important way that we as parents can protect our children online is to ask questions. These are the same questions you would ask any time your children leave the house; Where are they going? What are they doing there? Who else is there? Be careful not to ask leading questions or to accuse your child of something they have not done, but just listen. Also, make sure that your children know they have your ear. Tell them that if they see anything that frightens or confuses them, which is bound to happen, you are open to discussing it with them. Another aspect of parenting is setting and enforcing ground rules. Some parents are content to allow their children unlimited time online. Others choose to limit the amount of time their children can spend. Either way, make sure your children know what you expect of them. Inform them of the rules of when they can use the computer, where they can go, and for how long. Then, stick to those rules. If you allow your child to be online for one hour, make it one hour every time. Allowing 'five more minutes' can quickly degenerate into allowing unlimited time, so hold your ground. The second big step we can take to protect our children is to monitor them whenever they are online. You may not want to spy on your kids, or you may think this violates their privacy, but it is your job to protect them; privacy will come with maturity. There are different ways of achieving this, however, and you may want to pick the options that work best for you. Obviously you could sit and watch your children when they are online, but this works best for young children who often need help reading and navigating anyway. But with older children, we can not be with them every second. We have to utilize other methods of observation. The most common method is to use your web browser's 'history' option to review websites that have been visited recently. This is easy to erase, and often one of the first things kids learn to do when trying to hide their activities. Another option is to place your child's computer in a public, preferably high-traffic area. If the computer is in a public area, parents and siblings can easily observe a child's activities. The third prong of our defense of safety is content filtering. This is software that prevents a list of 'blacklisted' websites from being visited (http://www.yoursafetyguide.com/systemgate.aspx). It may sound like a great idea, but suffers from a few problems. First, most software is either too ambitious and blocks websites that we may want our children to be able to visit, or it is too lax and allows through sites with questionable material. Also, some astute children may find ways to disable this software or get around it. Ultimately, no one method can guarantee our children's safety online. We must create an environment of communication, monitor our children's actions online, and use protective software to help protect their safety when we cannot be watching them. With this three-pronged approach to safety, we can ensure that our children have a safe, enjoyable internet experience.
Web Site = http://www.yoursafetyguide.com/systemgate.aspx
2022
