The Problem:
The Internet is a modern version of the "Wild, Wild West". Shysters and evildoers inhabit the virtual world in seemingly ever-growing numbers. Rightly used, the Internet is a wonderful tool for youngsters. It offers limitless opportunities for communication, entertainment, and education. Unfortunately, it's up to you to be sure exactly whom your kids are communicating with, what they are finding for online entertainment, and how they're being educated in the process.
A 2004 study reported that:
- More children used the Internet than adults
- 44% of children have felt sexually harassed on the Internet
- 28% of minors visit pornographic web pages
- 50% of children use the Internet alone
What can parents do?
The Solution:
Have an open conversation with your child about Internet dangers and create a written contract that both parent and child sign which governs your child’s online activities. Here's one, which comes from
www.CyberPatrol.com, one of the leading providers of parental control software:
- I will not use my real name in chat rooms - I will pick an online nickname.
- I will not tell anyone personal things about myself or my family - like names, addresses, telephone numbers, clubs I go to, financial information, my age, school name or location.
- I will never send a picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
- I will never agree to get together with someone that I meet online, without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and take my mother or father along with me.
- I will never respond to nasty or rude messages. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so they can contact the Internet service provider.
- I will be careful of any email attachments or links, as they can contain nasty images or computer viruses that can ruin the PC. So if I receive an email that I do not know who it is from I will not open it.
- I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate area for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.
- I will be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law.
Beyond having a written agreement, you will still want to monitor your child’s online surfing by keeping their computer in a public place in the home where anyone can see what's on the screen at anytime.
If you want to know for certain what your kids are doing online, you can use either software (
www.spectorsoft.com) or hardware (
www.keylogger.com) designed to secretly track a computer user's every move.
You can also use SpectorSoft's eBlaster 3.0 to forward a copy of your child's email - incoming and outgoing - to you in real time. You will get immediate reports of chats, instant messages, websites visited and keystrokes typed.
Your child will likely regard this as invasive surveillance; which, of course, it is. But, these steps can help protect a child and may be necessary if the aforementioned contract isn’t being adhered to.
A more subtle measure is to restrict access to certain web sites.
NetNanny consistently receives good reviews. Such software is useful but never 100% effective. At a minimum, you should consider using spam-filtering software since a lot of spam includes explicit language and explicit pictures.
ChoiceMail has a unique approach to filtering that does eliminate most spam.
Of course, some spam always gets through. One concerned parent, an experienced net-user himself, addressed this issue by blocking his children’s mailboxes from receiving any email with pictures. Additionally, for his youngest son, he set up registered user only access. Thus, the only people this eight-year-old corresponds with are pre-approved.
If you want to be really, really sure what your kids are doing, consider child-safe browsers like
ChiBrow and
SurfMonkey. These browsers allow users to access only certain sites. They can also be configured to permit Internet access during certain times of the day, or block access after a specific amount of time has lapsed.
