5 Ways To Protect Your Child on The Internet

As a parent and grandparent, I sometimes worry about the effects of the internet on our children. Have I cause for concern? You better believe it!! Do I need to worry? Not necessarily.

Concern means thinking about what to do about it? Worry means there's nothing you can do. Is there something we can do? Yes, of course we have control. Parental Control.

How many parents are keen to have their young children using a computer as soon as possible because they believe that this will give them a head-start in their education? Children are using computers at a very early age. Some good reasons for a young child to use a computer are:

• A child using a computer from an early age will develop their computer skills faster.
• There are many web sites which are educational and beneficial to a young child's development.
• A computer will give your child quick and effective access to a large amount of educational material.
• Schools generally encourage and usually insist upon the use of computers for obtaining resources.

Naturally there is concern among parents about the harmful effects on a young child from computers, and it is important that parents control their young child's computer. Some of the dangers are:

• The Internet has many dangers. There are many inappropriate sites for young children, which unfortunately and worryingly can display even when your child is not searching for them. Predators in disguise frequent sites looking for children to deceive.

• Even a young child can suffer from physical ailments such as neck pain and back pain due to spending too much time on the computer.
• Advertising - Parents of children as young as one year old are targeted by unscrupulous marketers.
• Your child can waste their precious childhood by using the computer for large periods of time doing activities that are of little benefit to his or her education.
• The computer,like television,can be extraordinarily seductive to a child.

Parents of young children must control their child's computer use. Parents should:

1. Check with their teachers for suggested Web sites and for recommendations for good resources online.
2. Look for safe site lists that can be trusted. There is an approved safe sites list at WiredKids.

3. Discover the vast selection of parental control software that is available to help parents control their young child's computer.
4. Control the amount of time that your child spends on the computer, don't let them waste their precious childhood.
5. Most importantly,sit down with them as often as possible and find out what sites they like to visit online, and ask or answer questions about these sites. A computer is not a good babysitter for your child.

To summarize, instead of simply promoting computer use, parents and teachers must control childrens' computers and only allow children to use computers and the Internet very selectively.

Take control of your child's computer!

This parental control technology is suitable for the protection of children, because it blocks all sites and programs that aren't pre-approved, rather than just filtering out the "bad" sites.

These are simple and very reliable programs, which allow you to set exactly which programs and web sites you want your young child to have access to.

Your child will only be able to enter sites that have been specially selected by you, and play only on the games that you have allowed.

All other web sites and programs will not be accessible by your child. Normally these would be accessible through your Windows desktop, but parental control software can temporarily hide the desktop and replace it with a new one from which your child will be able to use the computer.