4 Ways to Keep Your Kids Safe Online

August 10, 2010, By Steve McFarlane 1 comment

The safety and well-being of our kids is important. If you are concerned about your kids' exposure to forbidden content and situations, don’t despair. It's much easier to keep your kids safe if you are aware of the various parental control tools and resources that are out there to help you. Parental controls fall into four main categories:

• Content Filters - Tools that limit your kids to viewing those things that are age appropriate.
• Usage Controls - Devices that place time limits on device usage or even forbidding certain types of use.
• Computer Usage Management Tools - These allow parents to incorporate learning activities into computer time.
• Location Monitoring - This includes tracking a child’s location and activity using GPS or cellular technology.

Content Filters

You can limit Internet access at home by using content filtering software, such as K9 Web Protection, which allows parents to restrict the kind of content they can see. You can configure the content filter to block content such as adult rated movies, pornography and explicit songs. Most content filters also allow the administrator to restrict the times that the computer is used.

Usage Controls

There are quite a few usage controllers on the market today; these are available for television/cable and allow channels to either be blocked or have viewing time limits applied.

In addition, you can limit the use of cell phones by setting call durations and call times for numbers other than emergency numbers. Some video games also have features that allow them to be stopped automatically after a certain time. There are even some automobile models that have sound systems that let you decide the max volume to keep kids from disturbing the neighbors (or bursting their eardrums).

Computer Usage Management

This is a "learning while computing" option. This type of parental control gives parents the option to balance computer gaming time with educational pursuits, as kids will have to earn gaming points while working through educational content.

Monitoring

With GPS technology becoming more affordable, it's easy to monitor your children’s whereabouts without much hassle. It is now possible to know where your children are at curfew time, the exact location of a teenager's car, and how long your kids stayed at one place. A vehicle tracking device also doubles as a stolen car recovery system if thieves strike.

Parental Controls on Cellular Phones

Various cell phone companies offer a variety of parental controls. Cellular phones are chock-full of features such as Internet browsers, downloadable applications, and photo/video capabilities. Find out what your cell phone provider offers before purchasing a phone for your child. Features you can expect include age appropriate content filters, built in mechanisms to block unwanted applications from being downloaded, and safe mobile web browsers for kids that filter adult-rated websites.

Since today's kids are tech savvy and will easily figure out ways to get around your censoring and usage control initiatives, it's a good idea to try to help your kids understand the importance of staying away from offensive content and situations instead of relying on technology to do all the work. That said, these parental controls are a way to help them stay safe just in case they have a lapse of judgment.