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Internet Patrol: Keep Your Kids Safe Whist Surfing
Children are constantly warned about dangers, whether it is about taking sweets from the nice man stood in the bushes at the playground or running blindly across roads, the world is full of hazards. With parents seemingly faced with an unrelenting torrent of possible ways that their kids could be harmed how do you even begin to factor the dangers that you cannot always see? Although the internet has played a major part in enriching young people’s education and social interaction, there are plenty of ways that the internet can open their eyes to something that they really should not see. Unless you choose to sit next to your offspring as they surf the net, it is hard to keep tabs on what children are actually viewing. Several companies have devised variations of parental guidance controls, software that plays the part of a responsible guardian as your child is on the computer. Many security programs also offer a parental control feature which simply needs to be turned on to offer immediate protection. If you are looking for an extra pair of eyes to shield your children from the dangers of the net, take a look at Web guy’s top parental control options.
Parents can purchase specially designed programs that place restrictions on the sites that your children can open. Two of the most popular options include Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol, both offering a range of security options that include:
- Filtering inappropriate internet sites
- Monitoring time spent online
- Reporting chat activity and which websites have been accessed
- Blocking access to chat rooms, gambling sites and file sharing
Obviously the restrictions that you would have in place for a seven year old will be different to those in place for a 14 year old. These two programs allow parents to set varying degrees of restrictions, ideal for families with more than one child.
The majority computers offer their own free version of parental control tools, those using Microsoft can head to http://www.microsoft.com/ to find out more about what is on offer. Another way to set restrictions without having to spend money is by setting up Google search preferences, ensuring that no inappropriate sites come up when youngsters are using the search engine.