For families who share a computer with their children, Internet safety is an important issue for the household. Computers are the busy hub of the household as they are used for home employment, account balancing, and schoolwork. Read ways that you can protect loved ones from the dangers of the web.
Introduction
For families who share a computer with their children, Internet safety is an important issue for the household. While the computer may be a designated work area during the day, it may become the "homework hub," of the night. Parents like to know that their children can safely navigate the web as he/she cooks dinner,puts in a quick load of laundry, or gets the lunches ready for the children for the next day. There are steps that we can take and clues that we can look for when it comes to protecting our children when they are logged onto the worldwide web.
K9 Protection
One way to protect children from the dangerous or potential adult websites is to install a net nanny or software called K9 Protection. This allows you to keep certain kinds of websites blocked from your child such as social networking, chartrooms, adult websites, bad language, and more. Special passwords that you have created have to be inputed in order to gain access to these websites. Keep passwords hidden from the children in your household. K9 also allows the child to have access to the Internet at certain time frames that you select yourself. Once the time frame has passed, the password must be typed in to gain access. The software is free for home computer use, and is available at http://www1.k9webprotection.com/index.php.
Use Your History
Another great simple tool that can be found within your web browser, is the history. You can keep track of the websites that your children visit and question any of their Internet usage. The websites that you wouldn't like your children to visit, you can block with your Internet protection tool. Talk with your children and let them know about the kinds of websites that you approve that they visit, and keep tabs on anyone that they may be chatting with.
Chatting on the Internet
If you allow an older child to chat with others on the Internet, be sure that they are only speaking with family and friends. Discuss with them the dangers of Internet predators and how they can pretend to be their friends, when they are really not. Don't let your child create names such as "hot_chick," or "babe_magnet." While they may be speaking with their friends, sometimes chatters can find their way into a conversation and "im" them to provoke them to talk.
Password Activation
While you may be away from your computer, and you would like to protect your work from a home job or the office, activate a screensaver that requires a password to log on. This can protect your work, as well as protect your child from any Internet harm that could happen while you are not in the area. This tool is located in the display settings within your control panel. Choose a screensaver design and mark the box that allows you to have a password to unlock the screensaver.
Summary
Computers are important tools to have in the household for work and employment, as well as helpful tools for your school-age children too. It is important that you protect the ones that you love so that there doesn't have to be any worry when someone in your household is using the computer or a connection to the Internet. Use common knowledge, Internet safety tools, and web protection so that you can have a safe and friendly place within your home office work area.