Are Your Children safe?

Are Your Children safe on-line?

We all can agree that we do not want our children exposed to pornography at an early age. We can all agree that we do not want adults that prey on children to reach them through email, internet chat rooms, and Instant Messaging services. The question really is, have we done enough to protect them?

Do you have an internet filter that allows you to restrict access to adult web sites, Instant Message programs? If not, why not? If you children have access to the computer at all then this is a bare minimum. You may restrict your child from using the computer only when you are around, but I was a child once and I have no delusions that children are basically honest and obedient. So what stops them from getting things you do not approve of when you are not home, or are engrossed in the newspaper?

Assuming you have an internet filter, is that enough? No, it is not enough. Any smart kid given enough time can find away to bypass filters. So another key is to limit time on the computer and especially unsupervised time. This will make it harder for the smarter kids to figure out work around.

You might say my kids are not that smart. You could say that my kids are that smart, so I am going to take your advice on keeping the unmonitored time down. That is great. Now you have the problem of another kid or adult that has all the time in the world cracking the filters and giving your child the procedure to bypass your filtering service.

You may be getting to the point were you are ready to rip the computer out or go to another post that is less depressing. I am sorry but I must warn you of the dangers.

But I have the best filter in the world and it is unbeatable? I though the same hing a few months ago. In fact the one I use is well respected and has stomped many experts from bypassing it. . One of the selling points for the one I use is that adults only have limited control, so kids can not use the parents password to bypass it. However, I feel only secure if I occasionally try to beat it and it wins. I have been secure for months, but now I have found it weakness and can bypass it. I would like to say it is my computer programming genius, but alas I am not a programmer. It was not my tech savvy, but (well do not want to say to much in case a child is reading this) that led to defeating the system.

Do not let this stop your from using filters, but keep in mind they are not able to perfectly defend your children. I recommend some filters NetMop being one of the best, but I also recommend using this monitoring program. The program will not stop content you want out, but it will record any violations in case your child does find a work around as I did.