Web Filter Software Makes Virtual World Very Safe for Kids

Posted on March 12, 2012 by admin

For good cause, a growing number of contemporary adults want effective ways to censor the web-based content to which their offspring are exposed. Virtual reality has become the platform for various educational and recreational pursuits. Consequently, online activities are consuming increasing amounts of youngsters’ time and attention.

Following is an overview of the basic features and common characteristics of automated web filter software:

- Customizable restrictive capability

This is the “core” of all web filters. Lengthy drop-down menus lends a high degree of precision to parental discretion about what tender eyes may see. Subsequent or simultaneous age-appropriate adjustments for multiple siblings are also easily accomplished.

- After-the-fact analyses

High-quality web filters typically include a log feature to facilitate subsequent review and accurate analyses of juvenile online activities. Thus, you may glean a full history of your child’s prior Cyberspace forays at your leisure. Busy parents no longer must worry about whether Junior has really been working on that research project due next week or playing virtual games. Even if all looks well on the surface, emergent bad habits like a progressive attraction to virtual arcades that present detractions to earning higher grades may be nipped in the bud.

- Real-time remote supervision

Typical web filter templates even let concerned parents eavesdrop on youngsters’ online sessions in real-time to enable an immediate halt to inappropriate activity(ies) or communications.

- Specific site exclusion

You may also block access to specific “danger zones” disclosed by prior diligent investigation. This neutralizes negative temptations for youngsters while providing parents with an effective instrument of positive motivation. Parents can make earning a minimum test score or completing specific household chores a condition of restored gaming site access, for instance.

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Parental Control Software Improved my Child’s Attitude and Schoolwork

Posted on March 7, 2012 by admin

My son started high school this year, and he’s at an interesting age; sometimes, he seems like a child, and other times, it seems like he’s almost a man. Last year, we bought him a laptop computer with broadband Internet access; since then, he’s been spending a lot of time online, and I’ve noticed some negative changes in his personality. Before we bought the laptop, he was more outgoing, and his marks were better. He used to spend more time with me and my husband, and he was also more polite and more respectful of me and of authority figures.

Have You “Lost” Your Child to the World Wide Web?

Once he began to spend so much time online, it’s like I “lost” him to the World Wide Web. I became particularly concerned about the laptop and the Internet’s hold over him when his marks started dropping. Since I bought the laptop so he could use it for homework, it seemed like my whole strategy was backfiring in a major way. The situation was really stressing me out, as I love him so much and I just want him to be a happy, productive, and positive person. Obviously, taking away the laptop would lead to nasty scenes and even more mutual mistrust, so I needed to find another way to deal with the situation…

I know you’re not supposed to poke around your child’s room, looking at Internet search histories and things like that. However, my son is still quite young, and I must confess that I did check his browser history in order to see what was going on with him. It’s an understatement to say that I felt physically ill when I saw the things he’d been checking out online. It was all too obvious that he never expected me to question his online activities or to check his web history.  Eventually, I did confront him, and it didn’t go well. Of course, after this, he began deleting his search histories after every Internet session.

I knew there had to be another way to monitor what was appearing on his computer screen. After a little research, I decided to investigate parental control software that would allow me to remotely monitor every single keystroke that he punched in on his laptop keyboard. I was thrilled to realize just how many attributes and features these software programs offered.
By letting my son know that I now had the power to track his movements online, I was able to deter him from visiting inappropriate websites or chatting with unsafe, unknown strangers. Since he spends so much time in his room (like most teenagers), I knew parental control software would provide me with a great return on my investment. After I told him about the new software, he was angry. However, I stated that it was “my way or the highway”, and that I would routinely monitor his activities on the Web until he turned 18.

Over the next little while, his website search history got cleaner and cleaner. He was clearly too ashamed or afraid to visit his old haunts, and that was just fine with me.

I Chose Affordable Parental Control Software with a Variety of Useful Features

The parental software program that I chose allowed me to monitor my child’s online activities in absolute secrecy; however, in the spirit of trust and openness, I chose to alert my son to the existence of this new program. By letting him know that nothing he does online is really private, I reinforced boundaries and he cleaned up his act. Yes, he can still seek out inappropriate websites when he’s outside of the family home. However, he can’t do this while he’s in his bedroom.

It’s just not healthy for him to see certain things that are displayed online, and these “bad” websites were really affecting his attitude and distracting him from his schoolwork. Now, thanks to parental control software, he’s coming around and acting more like he used to. His marks are rising, and he’s spending more time with us.

Parenthood is a journey with many bumps in the road; raising a kid is hard work, and it requires kind, yet firm, discipline. By letting my son know that I see everything he does online, I have changed the way he uses the Internet. I love having my son back, and I’m so glad I chose to install one of these innovative and practical programs.

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Top Five Things to Know about Parental Control Software

Posted on February 26, 2012 by admin

5.    Google Parental Controls are Free!

Before you spend a fortune on parental control software, take a look at what Google has to offer.  The webmasters at Google are always coming up with new and better ways to serve the people searching the Internet and because Google makes so much money, many of those new and better services are free. Google created parental control options called “SafeSearch,” which allows parents to set search parameters and even lock those parameters. SafeSearch is available on any computer with Internet access. It can also be used on cellphones with Internet access.

Google has also created safety features for YouTube, Blogger,  Gmail, and many of the other free Google services.  Google Mobile Apps that give location, like Google Maps and Google Latitude, can also be filtered so that children who use that app on their cell phones cannot be found by people who shouldn’t find them.

Google even has advice for parents on how best to keep their children safe. That advice can be found at: http://www.google.com/familysafety/tips.html.

4. E-Readers Need Parental Controls, Too

What can be more harmless than an e-Reader? It seems that something a person would use to read a book wouldn’t need parental control software, but e-Readers have practically become little computers. E-Readers allow easy access to the Internet and the big booksellers, like Amazon and Barnes and Noble, sell e-books that would be considered appropriate for children and teens. Not all e-Readers have parental control software, so parents should check with the manufacturer to see what is available.
3. Cellphones Need Safety Controls

Teens treat their cell phones like mini-computers. Because of the available apps and Internet access, parents need to treat their children’s cell phones the same way. Whatever a child can find on a home computer can be found on a cell phone, especially if it is a Smartphone.  Parents can purchase software that allows them to monitor text messages, photos and videos, and events on the calendar. Parents can have access to set time limits, to monitor keystrokes, and even to wipe the memory of the cell phone if it is lost or stolen.
Parents should compare reviews and specifications for the different mobile parental control software to find what is best for them and their children.
2. Parents Can Monitor Facebook Activity

Many people today would consider the idea of Facebook and child safety to be an oxymoron, but Facebook has taken parental controls and child safety seriously.  Facebook has an easy-to-read and easy-to-find page all about safety for families using Facebook. The Facebook Safety center (facebook.com/safety) offers tips for parents, tools for educators, and suggestions for teens to keep themselves safe while surfing the incredibly large Facebook world. The site even offers links to articles offering more information to anyone who is concerned with safety, cyberbullying, and character education online.

For parents who want even more control over their children’s Facebook world, there are several software manufacturers that have created software specifically for monitoring Facebook. The software can monitor friends, links, profiles, and more, while keeping track of activity on both Facebook and Twitter. Parents should check reviews of those programs to find what fits best for them.

1.    Children Know How to Get Around the Controls

It is very easy to set up parental controls on the computer. Therefore, it is just as easy to take them down. Children can easily find websites with easy instructions, pictures and videos to get the parental controls taken off of their mobile phones, computers, and e-Readers. Just a simple search of “How to turn off parental control software” gleans over 7 million results on Google.

So what is a parent to do? Awareness is the key. Children usually know more about computers than they let their parents know. Children aren’t afraid to explore their computers and cell phones to see how they work. Therefore, parents need to do the same thing, by not being afraid of technology. Parents should talk to their children about safety on the computer, so neither is taken by surprise if something unexpected or unsafe happens.

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Keeping Your Family Safe With Windows 7 Firewall

Posted on February 3, 2011 by writer

Just like with keeping your family safe in real life, protecting your family on the computer starts at home.  In this case, your home is the computer itself, and in order to keep your family safe, you need to keep the door to your computer locked and monitored at all times.  The door that we’re talking about is a firewall.  Thankfully, Windows 7 offers a great firewall, and in this article we will teach you what it does and how best to set it up.  Best of all, this feature works very well with Windows User Accounts.

  1. To get started, click Start, and then Control Panel
  2. Then click on Windows Firewall
  3. On the left-hand side of the window, click on Turn Windows Firewall on or off
  4. For each of the different network types, click Turn on Windows Firewall.
  5. We recommend selecting “Notify me when Windows Firewall blocks a new program,” but this isn’t necessary.
  6. This will set the firewall to all of the default settings.  However, sometimes Windows Firewall will block programs that you don’t want blocked, such as games, alternate email clients, or even instant messenger clients.  Generally speaking, if Windows Firewall doesn’t know the program already, you will need to tell it to allow it to communicate to the Internet.

Allowing programs access is pretty easy.  All that you have to do is click on Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall on the left-hand side.  This will bring up a list of programs and features installed on your computer.  Scroll through the list and place a check in the corresponding box for each program you wish to allow to access the Internet.  There will be different columns for each network that is set up, and you should choose which networks the program can access the Internet from carefully.  Please note, however, that you should never allow access to any program that you do not know.

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Making Facebook Safe For Your Family

Posted on February 2, 2011 by writer

It’s pretty likely that you have heard of Facebook by now.  A tremendously popular social networking website, Facebook is used by millions of different people for different reasons.  While the vast majority of those users are benign and friendly, just looking for a way to connect with friends.  If you’ve decided to allow your kids to use Facebook, or even your teenagers, then there are some steps you should take to ensure that they are as secure as possible.  Facebook, as well as other kid-safe social networking platforms, are great ways for kids to keep connected with the family.  In this article, we’ll show you how to create a Facebook account and how to customize your profile so that it is as secure as possible.

  1. Navigate to www.facebook.com
  2. Fill in the details as requested to create a new account for your child.  Please note that it is important to input the correct birth year of your child, as this will help filter Internet content delivered to them.
  3. You will be invited to find your friends using your email address.  Input here is optional.
  4. Step 2 involves filling in high school and job information.  We recommend inputting this information as it will help your child connect with others at school and can be hidden from strangers later.
  5. Step 3 asks for a profile picture.  This step is optional, although we recommend a cartoon or other image that is not actually a photograph of your child.
  6. After completing Step 3, you will be taken to your homepage.  Now, click on Account Settings in the upper-right corner, and click Privacy Settings.
  7. We highly recommend that you set all of the options to Friends Only.

From here, the details you fill in about your children are up to you.  Provided that you allow only friends, which must be confirmed by you, to view your details, none of these will be exposed.

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Kid-Safe Social Networking Platforms

Posted on February 1, 2011 by writer

In our last article about kid-safe social networking, we went over some of the most important basics of keeping your family safe online: avoiding personally identifiable information, not posting images or addresses online, and never meeting strangers from the internet.  These tips, no matter what social networking is used by your family and your kids, should always be upheld.

That said, there are some social networks that are better than others for kids.  In this article, we will look at a few of them as well as providing some details about which you should use.  When deciding which, or even if, your kids will use one of these websites, be sure to visit each and deliberate carefully.

yoursphere: Yoursphere is a kids-only social networking platform, and it features a wide variety of games, social circles, and contests.  Perhaps best of all for your kids, the entire platform was designed by kids – guaranteeing that they will have fun and make fast friends.

imbee: Billed on their website as the first secure social network for kids only, imbee is arguably one of the safer social networking platforms for kids.  It features easy ways to make new friends and to chat with them from around the world, the ability for kids to broadcast their mood, games, and music.

What’s what?: In terms of security, What’s What? is the most interesting of the secure kids-only social networks.  In order to sign up, parents must submit not only their credit card information, but three images taken of their child with a webcam attached to the computer.  Every few hours, What’s What? administrators will look at the picture being sent by the webcam, and if it doesn’t match the mugshots sent in during registration, then the profile is permanently blocked.  What’s What? also features games, friend-making, and groups.

The decision to allow your children to join any of these websites is entirely up to you as a parent.  While many of these platforms are quite safe, you should still be careful, and you should definitely make sure to talk to your kids about internet safety.

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Kid-Safe Social Networking Basics

Posted on January 31, 2011 by writer

One of the biggest movements on the Internet over the last five years has been the dramatic rise of social networking.  People of all ages and of all kinds have been taking part in the movement, across a wide variety of websites.

That doesn’t mean that you should bar your children from social networking.  Because of its prominence and the likelihood that social networking is here to stay, being able to effectively communicate online is a critical part of a child’s social development.  With that in mind, we will be focusing, in a series of articles, of how to protect your kids and your family when they are using social networking applications.

First, though, the basics: never, under any circumstances, should your children be broadcasting their home address, school address, phone number, or any other identifying information.

If you’re using a website that features usernames, like MySpace, then the above tip goes for usernames, too.  This means never to use your (or their) real names, and their pseudonym should be something about their interests – not who they are as an individual.

Carefully determine whether or not to allow your children to post photographs of themselves online.

Never let your children meet strangers from the Internet, no matter how benign and friendly they might seem.

While these are just the basics, they are some of the most important tips for both you and your family.  In addition to Internet content filtering software, operating system controls, and Google SafeSearch, being careful with social networking is a critical component of online safety for your family.

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Internet Security 101

Posted on January 30, 2011 by writer

In the course of creating articles to keep your family safe online, we realized that we may have been throwing around some terms that you weren’t familiar with, or briefly alluded to some concepts you may not understand.  Due to this, we decided that we would go over some of the more important Internet security terms to better arm you to protect your children online.

Firewall: A firewall is essentially a gateway that gets placed between your computer and the Internet.  It works just like the door to your house: it opens only when you tell it to, and for whom you tell it to.  Instead of people, it opens and closes for connections to the Internet, whether through programs or features.  Most firewalls, like the Windows Firewall, allows you to customize it to only open for specific programs, or to ask you every time.

Malware: Malware is any software that can be installed on your computer with malicious intent.  It may try to turn your computer into a zombie to function as part of a botnet, attempt to harvest sensitive information, or even just try to cripple your computer.  Antivirus and Antimalware software are designed to protect against applications like this.

Spyware: Spyware, while still being problematic, is more benign than malware.  Instead of actively trying to harm or steal from you like malware, spyware instead monitors your Internet and computer behavior.  Usually, this information is then sold to rogue marketers to try and entice you into buying their products.  Spyware has a tendency to slow down computers.

While these are very basic definitions of topics that can be complex, it is important to establish a  basic understanding of these concepts before moving onto larger ones.  Remember: the best defense you can have in any situation is information.

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Keeping Your Kids Safe During Communications

Posted on January 27, 2011 by writer

One of the greatest aspects of the Internet is that it enables communication between vast geographic distances, and allows friendships to form that may never have otherwise.  But that doesn’t mean you should deprive your kids from communicating with anyone online – you just need to teach them to communicate safely online.  This is because befriending people from other countries and areas can be a tremendously educational and enriching experience.

The first thing that you should teach your kids is that it is almost impossible to know who is on the other end of an email address, and because of this, all communications with strangers should be met with extreme caution.  An easy way to remedy this is to only allow your kids to talk to people you have approved of, or received their email address from school or another safe means.

The second thing is that, regardless of how your child and the other correspondent got in touch in the first place, they should never reveal their full name or their address.  That’s because even while you may be sure who your child is talking to, you can almost never be sure who else might read that email.

These rules apply equally, if not more strongly, for instant messaging.  Although social networking has removed a lot of the emphasis from communicating by email and instant messaging, it is still done by many people, and that is not an excuse to not treat each with caution.

While you can use filtering software to block your children from communicating with anyone online, it is usually better to educate them about the dangers of communicating with strangers.  This way, they will be much more prone to making good Internet decisions in the future.

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Internet Safety Programs For Your Family: Microsoft Family Safety

Posted on January 26, 2011 by writer

Microsoft, the developers of the most popular operating system in the world, as well as some of the biggest names in productivity software, have been paying attention.  They are  been working to actively develop a solution to help keep your family safe.  While turning on User Accounts and connecting it to Google SearchSafe is a great start, it isn’t quite enough.  In addition to antivirus software, Microsoft Family Safety provides a great Internet content filter that will provide a high level of safety for your family.

Best of all, Microsoft Family Safe is completely free for anyone that has a Windows operating system.  To get started, simply head to the Family Safety website (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Protecting-your-kids-with-Family-Safety).  Once there, Microsoft has outlined a series of instructions on how to set up Microsoft Family Safety for optimum settings.

With Microsoft Family Safety, there are three different main components: the Family Safety Filter, which monitors what your kids are doing on the computer, how much time they spent doing it, and methods to control each aspect of this.  The Family Safety Website displays all of the information collected by the filter, and you can change all of the settings that you wish to alter from here, making this a great website for Internet filtering.  Finally, Windows Parental Controls allow you to configure even more settings, such as allowing only certain programs to be accessed and for only set periods of time each day.

As one of the most comprehensive solutions out there, Microsoft Family Safety is a great route to follow if you want a single program to manage most of the necessary safety functions.  In our coming articles, we’ll take a look at direct website filters and other methods to keep your kids safe online.

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