The Best Safety Filter for Kids on the Internet

It's not an upgrade or a new version, but it is smart enough to filter out everything a kid shouldn't see on the Internet. And, it works with Mac or PC!

It's you, the parent.

Though many helpful products have come out to try to protect kids from going where they ought not to on the Internet, none is as foolproof and has the success rate of a watchful mother or father.

Filtering software or services are good if a parent is concerned with their child unwittingly stumbling upon an inappropriate area of the Internet. But to rely on them wholly is asking for trouble. Though many try to upgrade frequently, the rate at which some Webmasters program or find ways around those filters is troubling.

The reason some parents are seemingly disinterested by pleas that they monitor their child's computer time on the Web is that they don't understand what is out there. The Internet has everything on it that a basic large city has. It has places of higher learning, art and culture. There are places for entertainment and relaxation. There are also places where hate groups flourish, pornography is out in the open, and people who prey on children lurk.

Parents wouldn't think of dropping their children off in the middle of a large city, telling them to do what they wanted until they returned.

Since similar things can happen in cyberspace, they shouldn't drop their kids off unattended there, either. For this reason, Internet access should be shut off whenever a parent is gone. Use a password to protect the family computer, and keep it in a place your kids can't find.

Having a separate Internet number and having the option to call and see if it is busy while you are gone is another way to determine that the system is off.

Children should never have access to the Internet from the computers in their rooms. They can still do all of their schoolwork on an unconnected system. If they need to get on the Internet, they can do so from a computer in a common area where you frequently are.

You can check your browser by pulling down the URL (web address) bar, to see where the most recent visits have been.

Try to become familiar with current Internet lingo. If your children use a term you don't recognize, ask them to define it for you, then go onto the Internet yourself, type the term into a search engine, and see if what you find, if anything, reflects that definition.

Spend time with your children on the Internet. In this way, you can show them sites you'd like them to stay out of, and things about the listings you object to, that should warn them not to enter sites using similar terms.

Since the Internet is everywhere, make sure you know a parent's practice on Internet use before you let your child spend time at another home. In public libraries, where filters are rarely used, librarians try to monitor children using the Internet, or forbid those under a certain age to use the Internet without a parent. But they're often very busy and can't be expected to keep a dedicated eye on the computers, so plan your trips to the library accordingly.

The amount of dangers present on the Internet has caused some parents to forbid it altogether, though with schools, other families and libraries hooked up, it's nearly impossible. The problem with this is that the Internet also has a lot of mediocre sites and some that are truly wonderful. In addition, the Internet has become a place for online marketing for corporations of all sizes, and a place to research. If your children don't get comfortable with it when they're young, they'll be like someone who wasn't comfortable with the telephone in the 1980s. In other words, their future will be a little more difficult in a workplace that is increasingly linked to the Web.

Start now, be diligent and watchful, and soon your kids will be able to tell you which parts of the Internet are good, and which places they should avoid.