Internet Sanity for Parents

The most important factor in safe and sane use of the internet by children is the knowledge that their parents are concerned and involved with their internet experience.
Everybody loves to surf the internet. Unfortunately sometimes parents feel they'd rather allow their kids to walk alone on 42nd street than let them loose alone in cyberspace. The good news is that there are inexpensive and easy to use tools which can help you monitor and enrich your kids' internet travels and keep them from coming in contact with inappropriate people and materials.

Parental involvement is the most important tool in your arsenal. Sharing and guiding your children’s internet experience is just as important as sharing books and music. It builds bridges between the generations and allows you to impart your values to the kids. If your children are used to you being a part of their internet use they will not hesitate to come to you with problems or questions they have about things they might find.

Here are a few concrete steps that people have found helpful:

  • Keep your internet computer in a public area of the house. It promotes sharing and keeps kids from doing anything they wouldn't want you to know about.
  • Place restrictions on the amount of time and the time of day your kids can use the internet.
  • Check the history icon in your browser to see where your children are going on the internet
  • Encourage your children to view the internet as an educational resource by using it for their homework. And make sure that's what they're actually doing.
  • Buy an internet firewall or “cable router”.  A good low priced and effective model is the LinkSys model BEFSR41 which can be had for $40. The device is plugged in between your computer and your cable modem. It acts as a shield to keep hackers from gaining control of your PC. It can also be programmed to prevent access to certain websites and it logs all the internet traffic to and from your computer.
  • Use AntiVirus software. Symantec Antivirus and McAfee are equally good. Use a spyware cleaner too. The two best are AdAware and SpyBot. The antivirus software is about $40. The spyware cleaners can be downloaded free.
  • Internet Filtering Software adds a strong, additional layer of defense—giving parents an added measure of control and further peace of mind. Internet filtering software gives you the ability to control content displayed, block websites and set up passwords. ContentProtect, CYBERsitter, and Net Nanny, in that order, are the three best. ContentProtect costs $30

Consider an ISP (Internet Service Provider) which offers child-friendly features. AOL and Earthlink are two examples. Rather than the unlimited access which is afforded by some ISPs, with AOL you use proprietary software to access the internet and the software allows for parental controls. Depending on your child's age you can limit their access to strictly AOL children's areas or you can allow them access to the rest of the internet. It is easy to restrict incoming email on your child's email account to friends and people in our family. The AOL instant messenger service allows kids to communicate back and forth in real time and that also can be restricted.

Here are links to some family friendly web sites: