The threats against children who venture online are growing more severe day by day. Every time children use a computer they are vulnerable to exploitation. Fortunately, there are several practical measures that parents can implement to keep their children safe online.
Risks include exposure to inappropriate images, exposure to unknown contacts on Internet chat rooms and forums, online bullying, illegal downloads and piracy of copyrighted material, coercion to disclose personal information, spyware and viruses, and unwanted advertising for unnecessary and expensive products.
Some ISPs provide parental controls for browsers, blocking certain types of sites from access by children, but for peace of mind it it’s a good idea to use a good software tool for keeping your kids safe while surfing the Internet.
Software downloads include network monitoring software to keep an eye on usage history, and different antivirus packages can be installed. The use of content filtering and spam filters is highly recommended to stop children from accessing such material, or triggering spyware that may damage your computer. Popular downloads include Yahoo Messenger and Facebook Monitor Sniffers, used for tracing all chat and conversations that occur within these popular domains, and Who Is On My Wi-Fi will allow you to monitor unauthorized intrusion on your Wi-Fi network by neighbors.
Avast! Antivirus Free is a free antivirus software package that will provide some protection from malware. It will scan programs, Internet use and incoming e-mails for unwelcome visitors. An effective antivirus package should be the first step in parental control. The best antivirus software in the world cannot protect children from online chat room threats, so parents need to set some ground rules. Online chat is one area of concern, as it offers Internet predators a veil of anonymity to hide behind.
Meeting people and chatting with them online is fine as long as the rules are observed; children should not reveal their name or address, phone numbers, private e-mail address, photos or school information. They should use a nickname and should not arrange to meet people that they have only ever previously known online. As a last resort, if they feel they are being pressured for personal information they should be reassured that it is OK to back out of the conversation and switch the chat room off.
Internet privacy can be given a helping hand with some software tools, but they require supervision to be truly effective. Simply viewing the browser history can help parents to understand what kind of sites their children are accessing, and how to tighten up the access filters accordingly. Hide IP Platinum is software that can help hide your IP address from websites that want to spy on you. This is helpful for avoiding spam and malware. A keylogger is a kind of surveillance software package that will monitor what kinds of chat rooms and websites have been visited by children, and make this information available only to parents, via a password.
Internet safety need not be something to keep parents awake at night. Find and download parental control software to keep threats at bay and allow everybody to have fun online.
Credits: Photo courtesy of Thilo Leibelt.