I have three tips for you today that can keep you and your family safe from the threats lurking on the internet. I strongly urge you to take action and implement these 3 tips today to protect your children and make their internet experience a safe one.
Tip #1
Move the family computer to a location in the house where it is easy to keep an eye on everyone. This is very important, especially for young kids. It is very unlikely that a young child or even a teenager will engage in inappropriate activities online if they know mom or dad are just around the corner and can see everything they are doing. Some good locations for the computer would be a desk near the kitchen or in the family room. I know many kids today have computers in their room or laptops they carry with them, but if that's the case then you should be popping in on occasion to check on them.
Tip #2
You need to install some type of monitoring software on all computers the kids use or some parental control software. Both Windows and Mac operating systems have parental controls built in and that's a good place to start, but I like to take it one step further and install some third party software.
My favorite piece of software to install for blocking adult materials is OpenDNS. OpenDNS allows you to filter what users on your network can see in their browsers. There are pre-defined filters to block pornography, illegal activity, or any adult related material. In addition to these pre-defined filters, you can custom build filters to block any type of material or any specific site that you wish. I like the moderate filter the best as it blocks pornography and illegal activity sites such as gambling and phishing sites. OpenDNS comes with a stat package letting you know the sites that were blocked along with stats letting you know how much time everyone is spending online.
One of my favorite features of OpenDNS is the ability to upload a custom image that is displayed when someone accesses a blocked site. Imagine the shock on little Donnie's face when he sees a picture of mom and dad with a message, "You know better than to try to go on this site. Turn off the computer and go to your room!".
OpenDNS is a powerful application and I encourage you to check it out. It is 100% free and works about as good as any other product I've used to block sites.
Tip #3
Sit down and have a talk with your kids. Your kids need to know the dangers of going online and especially meeting and chatting with people. With all the social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and the new chat roulette, there are many places for predators to hang out and prey on children. By communicating openly with your children, they will feel safe and feel they can come to you with anything that happens.
Conclusion
Follow these 3 suggestions that I've presented today and your kids will be much safer online than they are today. Get that computer out in the open, install some parental controls or filtering software, and sit down and talk to your kids. Not only will you get to know your kids better, but you'll feel secure knowing they are a little safer.
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