It’s true that the Internet can be a wonderful resource for your children to complete homework assignments, socialize with friends and find entertainment.
It’s also true that the Internet has proved to be an outlet for foul-minded people to carry out their thoughts against children.
Without proper restraints, it’s possible for innocent-minded youth to accidentally visit offensive websites, be victimized by a cyber bully or encounter online predators. There are two things that parents can do to bring them peace of mind when their children are using the Internet.
First, parents should set rules for Internet use. Second, parents should use parental control software to help enforce those rules. Communicate with your children about some healthy habits to abide by when using the Internet.
For example, teach your children not to reveal their name, age or address on the Internet – even when signing up for a new service. It’s possible for predators to find children by checking out their Internet Service Provider profile or following a url – typical requirements when signing up for a service or creating personal websites.
Another good idea is to limit the amount of time your children can spend on the Internet and the time of day when they can access it. Establishing boundaries is easier than you think when you have a good parental controls software product.
Easy-to-use technology helps allow you to block access to the websites you don’t want your children to visit. Plus, automatically filters offensive websites by using pre-established parameters.
As a parent you can add even more categories, words or parameters that block offensive websites. What’s more is that you can actually set time limits for when your children can use the Internet.
If you know that your children cannot access the Internet during certain time periods, you’ll have peace of mind to do your own thing while the kids are in another room. By establishing some common sense guidelines and, with the help of the parental controls software, your children can enjoy the many marvelous resources provided by the Internet and parents can feel more at ease allowing children to use it with certain guidelines in place.
Having a separate computer from your office or business computer to be used by the kids for internet access is ideal, not only do predators lurk on the types of websites your children want to visit but so do viruses, spyware, malware and other infectious software, keeping these threats off your business computer means keeping the kids on a computer of their own which you can monitor.
With computer prices dropping drastically in the last 2-3 years a computer for internet access and homework for the kids can now be purchased for less than $300 and provides significant protection for your business simply by segmenting the type of work done on the home computer compared to the business computer.
For more information on adding a second computer to your home or home office contact the Technology Coach today!
Concerned the Internet Impacting Your Child’s Health? You’re Not Alone
If you’re worried about how the Internet impacts your childrens’ health, you’re not alone. According to a recent study, Internet Safety ranks number 7 on the top 10 list of child health concerns. Internet safety is a relatively new concern for parents, but it’s not one to be taken lightly.
While smoking and drug abuse are still the top concerns, the Internet provides a different forum for your children to fall into the “wrong crowd”. Children can innocently surf to an offensive website while searching for things that interest them or, perhaps even worse, get caught up in a conversation with an online predator. Either way managing the ways your children use the Internet will help to decrease the chances of something like this happening.
Good parental control software offers you a variety of tools to help protect your family against inappropriate websites. The parental controls component to look for include:
- A customizable filtering policy that allows you to block sites in commonly blocked categories, like Adult, Gambling, and Chat
- Time restrictions so you can control when (and for how long) your child can access the Internet
- Password protection to keep others in the household from modifying settings or disabling the product
- Extensive reporting capabilities that allow you to view the Internet activity of those using the computer
- Automatic updates to help keep your protection current against new web content that appears every day
