Internet Safety For Children?

Watch and know what your children are doing. Keep the computer in a common area of the house.

You can install every program in the world, but the above common sense parenting will work every time.

 

Look in your help files for "parental control" and you fill find that Windows Vista and 7 at least have some stuff built in.

If that is not adequate to what you desire google for the same and you will find a lot of products.

I haven't used any of these so can't recommend any of them.

You could also go to Amazon.com and search for parental control software and there will be a listing. Usually at the bottom of the page of each software there are reviews/likes and dislikes etc.

I would guess others might have a program that they could tell you about as well.

Edit: Remember they have access to computers at school and public libraries so teaching them right and wrong is the best guidance Not saying you haven't, just keep it up till they are out of the house and on their own

 

Bsecure. Best internet filtering program out there.

 

Filtering will not stop malware.

Do you let your kids have unlimited access to your reading material and texts?

 

They can learn and discuss that stuff at school (and probably have, I did when I was a kid and we didn't HAVE computers much less internet!).

Matt is right on. Keep the computer where you can view and DO! Pay attention. Any time a kid tries to hide what they are doing, lock down the computer for all of them (in this case peer pressure is very effective, the one not doing wrong are gonna be allllll over the one that got the computer banned!)

Check your histories often and find out where your histories go when "deleted". They aren't gone for good unless you have a really savy kid.

Set up a jar for spare change and tell your kids that the money in the jar is to be saved in case you ever need to have forensics done to see what they are up to on the internet. This is a visual reminder that there is nothing they can do that you can't find out about!

(there is a whole process that must be gone through to completely delete anything from a computer. A decent forensics guy with the right software can recover just about anything)

And above all, be frank with your children about the dangers of the internet, drugs and all the other things kids think are "so cool". Don't just say "because I said so" be specific as is appropriate for their age (by 11 they better know how you stand on EVERYTHING because they will learn about it in public middle school if they didn't learn about it in elementary.

And consider homeschooling.

 

The best step is not censorship of the forbidden, but put it out into the light of day. Talk with your kids. Teach them the dangers of recreational drug use and of mixing drugs. Be involved in their lives and let them know you care about their well being. :thumbs:

 

In regards to your OP I'm not sure but the following regarding obscene material may help:

In addition to Bsecure installed on your computers, you may want to configure the "DNS Servers" setting in your router to point to ScrubIT's DNS IP Addresses. Doing this would also help to filter out porn for anyone using the Internet through your router who may not have a web filter installed on their computer/device.

Protecting our kids from the Internet is similar to protecting babies from cleaning chemicals in our kitchen. The above approaches I listed are analogus to removing the chemical bottles FROM the kitchen floor where they will not be able to innocently open and consume them, and removing the chemicals TO a cabinet with a simple child proof door locking assembly. As the child matures then adjustments will need to be made. Continuing the analogy, hopefully as time passes, you will gain the trust of your toddler that you are a credible and reasonable person who loves them.

Doing this, and many of the suggestions (if not all) of the previous posters, would be a resonable approach.

 

Big, big thumbs up.

 

The first thing I would do is talk with your child about what is acceptable and what is unacceptable to navigate to at your home or on their private time. Internet safety for your child is something that should not be ignored or put on the back burner. I wouldn't approach this by saying "Here are the websites you can not visit," but instead create a bookmark list of sites like Disney or some kind of Christian site for children.

 

I'd use Net Nanny to block as much as possible.

And I'd use All In One Keylogger to see everything
they have typed, every website they've been to PLUS
every time the screen changes, it snaps a shot.

So even if your kid can somehow bypass Net Nanny, you can
still see what they are doing and what has come up on the screen....it
runs undetected and you can set it to be completely invisible.

Net Nanny is preventative; All In One
Keylogger is forensic.

Keep the computer in a visible area like the living room.
Do not let the kids boot from a CD or flash drive.

 

They have software to help block sites and even monitor/record activity ..i'd definitely look into that..it helps to know if there is even a problem ..you can see what kind of things your child is doing/looking up and that will help you know what steps need to be taken to protect your child