Security with Children using the internet
Supervise and Protect your children on the Internet
Internet security
The internet is a brilliant place to learn almost anything at all. Type a question into Google, Bing, Yahoo, and many more search engines, and pronto up comes hundreds of variations to your question. It is mind boggling when you think how the world has opened up a new opportunity for learning. It is a great learning experience for schools, universities and everyone that can afford a computer and access to the Internet.
This new world of information is wonderful although at the same time it has created many different problems. It has encouraged new threats from predators by way of, spam emails, chat rooms, instant messaging. The threat of predators to any home or family is very real. Never think it will not happen to you or your children, no one is exempt.
Ask yourself these questions:
· Are you and your children protected?
· Do you know anyone who has had predator problems?
· Has anyone in your family received spam emails?
· Is your child at risk using his computer
Broadband allows the children to surf the internet at any time without restrictions. Unaware of the real risk, they may be targeted by the dangerous predators preying on their innocence as they go to unsuitable websites. All families need to control what their children are viewing and who they speak to on the internet.
Parents need to be aware of chat rooms
Many predators or unsavory adults join the children's chat rooms posing as another teenager. Our children will have no idea who they are dealing with. Friendship is an important part of life to them. If we question these friendships, they will often retaliate or withdraw into their shells. You need to keep the communication open with your children. Talk to them as though an adult, and listen to their side, instead of talking over the top of them, because you are the adult.
Explain why they need to do the following:
· Do not agree to meet anyone they have met on the net without you being involved
· Never let them give out any personal details, like where they live.
· Ask them to use a nick name and do not under any circumstances give their real one.
· If they are approached, or don't feel comfortable with a comment made to them tell an adult at once.
Lack of Parent control
In my opinion, some parents do not have enough control of what their children do on their computers. So many children from the early ages of five have access to a family computer or one in their own room with no proper supervision. It is bad enough that they are not supervised. To have a computer in their room also leads to anti social family behavior.
They start off on the computer or doing homework, and finish up by rarely showing their face for the family meal. Often eating meals on their own in their bedrooms.
They shut themselves away from the rest of the family with no supervision or interaction with the family. Many juveniles finding themselves in trouble with the law are often loners. They live in a world of make believe, not understanding how their lives have changed.
Programs to protect your children
There are many programs available to help protect your children:
Windows Vista, has an inbuilt parent control in their operating system
Cyber Sentinel
McAfee has one with a Total Protection
Whatever program you use, make sure you are there to supervise and help your child when needed. Do not leave them to flounder on their own. A vigilant parent will help protect their child.
Parents, please keep your child safe in your home and on the internet from predators.
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Comments
It must be a night mare for parents these days.
ethel, you are not wrong I am glad that I am passed that stage.
There is also a great parental program that is free called K-9 that I used when my kids were younger, you could also set the times they could access the internet and when the alloted time ran out the internet would disconnect from their particular computer. It worked good when my kids would try to stay up past bedtime to goof around on the internet.
Fishtiger, that sounds like a great idea. As I have got passed that stage even with the grandkids, I have forgotten all that. So thanks for that info. cheers
eileen, great article. As a grandparent, I take these concerns seriously and am glad that their parents do as well. One way to regulate what sites the kids can get to is to use a dns service, like opendns.com. If a parent is comfortable changing dns settings on their pc or router, it gives a good level of protection without installing software.
jstankevicz, thanks for that info, it should help some people. cheers
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