What Do You Think?

Site Blocking to Protect Your Kids

It is a fact that millions of children are connected to the Internet, and unfortunately, a large number of this audience has admitted to having gambled online or watched a pornographic film at least once. And most of these children unintentionally arrived at those adult sites, so you can’t really blame them. It is very disturbing to know that there is no law to stop the owners of such sites. You, as a parent need to ask yourself… “How do I protect my family?”

Installing web filters onto your computer is one of the most popular methods to block explicit content. It is your duty as a parent, to protect your children from harmful influences that may corrupt their way of thinking about mature aspects. We are all aware, that the web is an excellent resource to find out useful information on almost anything. However, the Internet does have a downside. More and more pornography is being thrown into cyberspace as we speak, and they are somehow passing through the supposedly “smart” filters.

This has convicted many programmers to design web filters that will hopefully block websites with mature content. This way, parents are in control of what sites their child is exposed to. For example; you can program the filter to block sites or links that may lead to explicit material. By doing this, your children will never “by chance” land on sites that have violence, profanity, gambling, and porn.

The newest type of filter is one where the parent has a password that opens up the software in case you need to uninstall the program.

There are a few “smarter” filters that enable you to record your monitor screen, thus enabling you to see exactly what your child has been up to on the web. It can provide you with information on whatever accounts they have opened, and also whatever files they may have downloaded. This is extremely helpful, because you won’t always be around to check up on the kids.

In addition to installing a filter, it is also advisable to tell your children about proper online behaviour and the reasons for that. Through this, you’ll gain your children’s trust. An easy way to stop your older children from being tempted to surf the web unnoticed, is to set up your computer in a room that is open an accessible to all eyes. This will also make them more accountable.

Even though most filters claim to be “strict”, there are very smart hackers out there that have designed tools to “slip under the nets” of the filters. And some filters aren’t that effective either, which blocks WebPages and sites that don’t even contain harmful content! There are also some filters that require a lot of time and patience to set up, and that’s something you definitely do not want. It should be quick and simple to run. What you need is an extremely intelligent software that has all of the above functions and more, enabling you to block websites more effectively as well as more accurately.