How to help children avoid the dangers of internet

Question

I am sure many of you "SuperUsers" have children, and you have the internet. What software, computer settings, etc do you do to protect your children?

I feel strongly that the best defense is to supervise your children's internet activities and teach them what is and isn't acceptable. I also feel that the family computer should be in the main public room of the house, and NEVER in their bedroom. I agree with the information in this article.

So, the above is my first line of defense. I also feel that the parental controls in windows provide some benefit.

In addition, on all of my computers, I modify the search preferences. I set the SafeSearch option to Strict (i.e.: Filter sexually explicit text, images, and videos from your search results).

What do you do? Thanks.

Answer 1

Software4Parents.com's Top 5 Internet Safety Tips

1. Tell your child to NEVER EVER reveal their name, address, phone number or any other personal information to ANYONE online. Once you give out this information, it is impossible to retract.

2. Communicate regularly (not just once) with your child about WHAT they do online and WHO they talk to online. If you have actually met the friends they are talking to in person, you'll know it is OK for them to chat with them online.

3. Take computers out of children' rooms and put them into public areas such as the family room. Many parents think they are helping with homework by giving the children a computer, but it also opens certain dangers that you may be unaware of.

4. Choose your child's screen name, email address or instant message name wisely - don't' reveal ages, sex, hobbies, and CERTAINLY NOT suggestive or sexy names. Predators are more likely to pursue a child with the screen name "sexyteen5" than "happygirl5"

5. Use technology to help you protect your child. Monitoring software gives you the ability to review your child's Internet usage. Even if you don't look at each and every email or instant message they send, you'll have a good idea if they are making smart choices online.

Answer 2

Lynx and a 300 Baud Modem should do the trick. No kid is patient enough to get corrupted in that environment.

Answer 3

My niece's school recommended K9 Web Protection which is a free content filtering service. This is very easy to set up and allows you to deny or permit sites by category.

Another option is Open DNS.

Both of these are discussed at the Gizmo's Freeware site.

...and of course, having the computer in a public part of the house.

Answer 4

Install DansGuardian, a free internet filter (non-commercial use anyway)

That should keep them off any bad or possibly dangerous web content.

Now I don't have any children, but it keeps ME safe at work and I can guarantee it will protect your children. And I'm not a system admin, but if I find a good installation guide for Windows I'll update the post (or someone else will).

Keeping the computer in public areas, such as the living room, definitely provide some social control. Though if children want to do stuff you forbid them, they will succeed. With a good filter at least you won't make it easy for them.

Answer 5

My advice is to use first install your child's computer so they do not have administrative access. Then install a program like NetNanny so you can prevent them from going to inappropriate sites. These suggestions should be done along with Krish's suggestions which are all spot on.

Net Nanny Website