Protect Children : Keeping Kids Safe From Online Adult Content

In on on-going effort by DesireHire.com to provide a fun and safe experience, We have created a check-list to help parents understand and protect their children from Online adult/inappropriate content.

Parental Control:

In today's Internet age, You can find and install many great Parental Control software's. Some of the best-known and most respected software packages include CyberPatrol, Net Nanny and Safety Surf, Offering a great level of control over what your children can browse over the Internet.

Content Filtering:

Many ISP's (Internet Service Providers a.k.a. The company who provides your Internet connection ), Provide their own Content filtering as part of your Internet package. Contact your ISP to find out about measures they take as well as possible measures you can take in the effort to filter content.

Clearing your History:

Parental control and content filters don't guarantee that your children wont be exposed to inappropriate content. The Internet is an ever growing virtual world, and new sites pop up everyday. It is extremely important that you update your software often, and learn how you web browser works. If you are a parent who who surfs the web for adult/inappropriate content, it is important to keep your browsing history clean of such content. Checking your browser history can also be a great tool to figure out were your children go and have been on the Internet.

The Talk:

Talking to your children about the possible dangers found on the Internet, And supervising their web surfing Have been and still are the best ways to protect them from inappropriate content.

Things to make sure they know are:

• Never give out personal information about themselves or their family to strangers they might meet online.
• Teach them that sometimes online, Bad people can pretend to be their friend or someone they know.
• Teach them that sometimes online, Bad people can lie about their name, age and gender in an effort to trick them into getting close.
• Teach them that they should never meet new friend from the Internet without their parent present.
• Teach them to never give out photos of themselves to strangers, And if sent a picture of something of adult or disturbing nature they should get off the computer immediately and report this to their parents.
• And most of all remind them that if they ever encounter someone or something dangerous, They can yell you and not be ashamed or worried that they will get in trouble.

Parental Control & Content Filtering Explained:

Parental control software works by blocking access to certain websites and online content. On the most part when you buy parental control software it already comes loaded with a large list of websites that are or in some cases deemed inappropriate. Most if not all of these software's update regularly.

In the case that your home uses only one computer for both your own surfing and your children's surfing, many parental control software's will allow for you to set a password to override your parental control restrictions.

Parental control software in many cases will also offer content filtering such as keyword filtering. It is important to setup filters against keywords that would undoubtedly result in adult/inappropriate related content such as but not limited to the keyword "sex". The same filters can also be used to block out other inappropriate content such as violence, drugs, tobacco and racism just to name a few.

It is also important to remember that using content filters such as keyword filters, You may find that you will be blocking legitimate sites that use the keywords in a clean manner. Examples of this would be the keyword "sex", that may be used by a science related site or an encyclopedia on subjects such as gender, So it is best to experiment with your filters to make sure only the correct content is being blocked.

Many parental control software's also allow you to set levels of filtering based on the user using the computer. Children can be given heavy filters, While their parents have no filters at all. In some cases the software can even be configured to block personal information as well, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses from being sent over the Internet. This is a great feature to further protect your children from online predators.

Helpful Links:

CyberPatrol: http://www.cyberpatrol.com
NetNanny: http://www.netnanny.com
Safety Surf: http://www.safetysurf.com
Getwise: http://www.getwise.org
RestrictedToAdults: http://www.rtalabel.org