software to monitor child internet use

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

What we did for my 3 yr old was to simply place links to the sites she was
allowed to use, and to then set up IE such that none of the navigation stuff
is visible. It's very hard for her to get out of those specific sites, and
in general, she doesn't try. Your son may push the limits more, but this
should delay him and make it much more obvious if he's TRYING to go
elsewhere, as opposed to doing it by accident.

If you set security up high and make only your child's sites are trusted,
usually the controls which allow typing in information (and graphics, and
games, and most of the other stuff that makes the internet interesting)
don't work-so that's an additional deterrant, and while these settings can
easily be changed, it's buried deeply enough that, again, you'll probably be
able to catch him in the act if he tries. This is easier if your child has a
dedicated computer or at least a dedicated login on yours, because otherwise
it's really annoying for the adults in the house. Since we always have spare
hardware, my DD got her own computer as soon as she showed interest (which
was before age 2), and has been taught from day 1 that the computer doesn't
go on without mommy or daddy's permission, and that if it comes on without
permission, the computer goes away for awhile. It's a non-negotiable, just
like sitting in your carseat with your seatbelts buckled if the car is
moving or is going to start moving soon or holding an adult's hand in a
parking lot.

And, the other thing is that he simply should never be online without an
adult in the room-because at age 4, even though he's very intelligent, he's
simply not old enough to comprehend the risks in giving out such information
publically, especially when many of the TV shows urge going to websites and
often signing up for contests or submitting information online. I would
suggest disabling the internet when you can't be in the room. When I taught,
I actually unplugged the ethernet cables from my school computers unless
there was a purpose for the students to be online, and kept them stored in a
locked cabinet. It wasn't that hard to plug them back in and have the
connection recognized if we needed multiple computers online. Again, this is
easier if it's not a shared computer.

Another thing I'd suggest is to teach your son "his" email-but make it an
address that requires a password that only you know. That way, if he does
sign up for something, you'll know it-and in most cases, there's a
confirmation code sent by email which is necessary to access the site or
whatever, just in case.

What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

Beliavsky wrote:
What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org.

I think the best way to do this is to watch what the kid is doing very
carefully, and when he goes to sites that he is not allowed or fills out
*any* form, he done with the computer for a while.

IMHO, 4-year olds do not need to be on a computer. And they should not
be on a computer without close supervision.

Kids find ways to get around parental blocks.

Jeff

In article ,
Beliavsky says...

What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .


We run XP, and I'm the administrator on my son's computer (he can't download
programs without me). I've also set up the Norton firewall with parental
controls to only access certain sites (now that he's older; it's more a matter
of using their list of disallowed sites). And I've discussed the various risks.

I also watch his use a little bit, but there's only so much over
shoulder-looking a mom of a 15 year old can or should do.

Banty

On Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:07:56 -0800 (PST), Beliavsky
wrote:

What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

Our 7 year old uses the computer almost daily. Our computer is in a
location where dad and I can see where she's going and what she's
doing. IMO, parental supervision is more effective than any
monitoring software. Your son is pretty young so you should be
supervising him closely, or playing at websites with him.

Nan

Donna Metler wrote:
"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

What we did for my 3 yr old was to simply place links to the sites she was
allowed to use, and to then set up IE such that none of the navigation stuff
is visible. It's very hard for her to get out of those specific sites, and
in general, she doesn't try. Your son may push the limits more, but this
should delay him and make it much more obvious if he's TRYING to go
elsewhere, as opposed to doing it by accident.

If you set security up high and make only your child's sites are trusted,
usually the controls which allow typing in information (and graphics, and
games, and most of the other stuff that makes the internet interesting)
don't work-so that's an additional deterrant, and while these settings can
easily be changed, it's buried deeply enough that, again, you'll probably be
able to catch him in the act if he tries. This is easier if your child has a
dedicated computer or at least a dedicated login on yours, because otherwise
it's really annoying for the adults in the house.

Children should have their own accounts. In Windows 2k, XP and Vista,
just go to settings or open the control panel and choose User Accounts.
When you make a new account, make sure there is a password (they might
as well learn to use a password early on) and they are not set up as
administrators.

And if you kid has his own computer, you should have an administrator
account on it and the kid should not.

And make sure you keep your private data (like private letters, emails
and financial information) in your directory and password-protected.

And, the other thing is that he simply should never be online without an
adult in the room-because at age 4

Excellent. For older kids, you can get software that lets you see what
is on the screen at any time from a different computer. And with older
kids, you should go and look carefully at their screens and open any
icons on the bottom for open programs and see what is there.

Jeff

To be honest, I don't think a toddler needs to be on the computer,
especially the internet. I know I never let mine on the computer until they
had a pretty good understanding of what was going on. When I did let them on
the computer, it was games and not on the internet. Some of the games we
had, had a feature that would lock the rest of the computer out so they
could not do any damage to anything on the computer. I don't have any
monitoring software on the computer, my girls are old enough to not give out
their personal information. I definitely would not let a child have an email
address. My girls at 15, 12, and 11 certainly don't have an email because in
my opinion, that is where all the inappropriate stuff comes in. I have all
kinds of rules set up to get rid of the inappropriate stuff and still naked
women still show up, so no email for the girls until they can set up rules
and I can be confident that nothing bad shows up.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .


None. There's no substitute for parental supervision. I hate hate hate
external controls and there is really no need for them.
If your child is giving up private information inappropriately, he's too
young to be on the internet unsupervised.

My nephew, who is 7 1/2, was reporting other people (presumably mostly
kids) as using inappropriate language on an internet gaming site
(supposedly fairly kid safe). Those kids, who did nothing wrong, may
have had their accounts suspended or gotten warning messages from the
game people.

He didn't seem to understand that those were real people on the other
end. Actually, this is quite common. Teenagers will often say really
nasty things to or about other teenagers on the internet; things that
they would never say to their face or about their friends they
physically know. Yet, when other teens do the same thing to them, they
get really upset, not realizing that they did the same thing to others.

So you have to be sure that their behavior is appropriate towards
others, as well. It's hard to realize that the others on the net are
real people when you just see screen names.

Jeff

On Jan 11, 12:13 am, Jeff wrote:
My nephew, who is 7 1/2, was reporting other people (presumably mostly
kids) as using inappropriate language on an internet gaming site
(supposedly fairly kid safe). Those kids, who did nothing wrong, may
have had their accounts suspended or gotten warning messages from the
game people.

Good! If those kids did not do anything wrong, the owners of the site
won't punish them and lose users.