How to Make the Internet safe for Kids

2006-11-21T15:10:00.000-08:00

An almost limitless amount of information is available to you on the Internet; unfortunately, not all of it is appropriate for users of all ages. although you want your kids to be able to use the Internet for fun and education, you will probably want to protect them from whatever harmful content they might stumble across.

The best way to make the Internet safe for your children is to surf the Net with them. There is simply no substitution for parental involvement when it comes to protecting your children.

But if you can't always be by their sides when they're surfing, you can turn to one of the numerous "kid-safe" software programs that filter out offensive content on the Net. These programs work in conjunction with your normal Internet access software by compiling lists of offensive sites (or, in some cases, offensive words) and automatically blocking access to those sites. When unauthorized users try to access a filtered site, they will receive a message informing them that the site is blocked.

Such programs let you establish multiple users for your Internet account; each user has his/her own password. This way, parents can still access adult-oriented sites (with their own passwords), while children are denied access.

Internet censorship

Internet censorship is control or suppression of material an individual can publish or access on the Internet. The legal issues are similar to offline censorship.

One difference is that national borders are more permeable online: residents of a country that bans certain information can find it on websites hosted outside the country. Conversely, attempts by one government to prevent its citizens from seeing certain material can have the effect of restricting foreigners, because the government may take action against Internet sites anywhere in the world, if they host objectionable material.

Total censorship of information on the Internet, however, is very difficult (or impossible) to achieve due to the underlying distributed technology of the Internet. Pseudonymity and data havens (such as Freenet) allow unconditional free speech, as the technology guarantees that material cannot be removed and the author of any information is impossible to link to a physical identity or organization.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

All of these programs look for offensive content in various categories, including sex, language, adult situations, violence, and drugs. The following sites list the most popular filtering software.

Publishers of Filtering Software
________________________
Software
________________________

Cyber Patrol
http://www.cyberpatrol.com
(831) 440-4880

CYBERsitter
http://www.solidoak.com
(800) 388-2761

Net Nanny
http://www.netnanny.com
(800) 350-9859

_________________________

Content-control software, also censorware and web filtering, is a term for software designed and optimized for controlling what content is permitted to a reader, especially when it is used to restrict material delivered over the Web. Content-control software determines what content will be available on a particular machine or network; the motive is often to prevent persons from viewing content which the computer's owner(s) or other authorities may consider objectionable. Common use cases of such software, at least in the United States, include parents who wish to limit what sites their children may view from home computers, schools performing the same function with regard to computers found at school, and employers restricting what content may be viewed by employees while on the job.

Frequent subjects of content-control software include web sites that, according to the company providing the control, are alleged to :

Include illegal content with reference to the legal domain being served by that company.
Promote, enable, or discuss hacking, software piracy, criminal skills, or other potentially illegal acts.
Include sexually explicit content, such as pornography, erotica, and non-erotic discussions of sexual topics such as sexuality or human reproduction.
Promote, enable, or discuss lifestyles which some might consider immoral, including promiscuity, sexual orientations other than heterosexuality, or other alternative lifestyles or sexual activity outside of marriage.
Contain violence or other forms of graphic or "extreme" content.
Promote, enable, or discuss bigotry or hate speech.
Promote, enable, or discuss gambling, recreational drug use, alcohol, or other activities frequently considered to be vice.
Are unlikely to be related to a student's studies, an employee's job function, or other tasks for which the computer in question may be intended.
Are contrary to the interests of the authority in question, such as web sites promoting organized labor or criticizing a particular company or industry.
Promote or discuss politics, religion, or other topics.
Include social networking opportunities that might expose children to predators.

Content-control software can also be used to block Internet access entirely.
As described above, many content-control software products as well as the concept of content-control software in general, especially in government-funded services or those not age-restricted, can be controversial. Many ISPs offer parental control options, among them Earthlink, Yahoo!, and AOL; and more general software such as Norton Internet Security includes "parental controls." Mac OS v10.4+ offers parental controls for several applications (Mail, Finder, iChat, Safari & Dictionary). The upcoming Windows Vista operating system also includes content-control software. See the Censorware category for a number of articles on content-control software products.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you're using Microsoft's Internet Explorer as your Web browser, you can take advantage of its built-in filtering capabilities. Just pull down the View menu, select Option, and click the Security tab. In the Section labeled Content Advisor, you can click the Settings button to set acceptable levels for different types of content (language, nudity, sex, violence). when you finish, click the Enable Ratings button to turn on the built-in filter.

View > Options > Security > Settings > Enable Ratings

Filters can be implemented in many different ways: by a software program on a personal computer or by servers providing Internet access. Choosing an Internet service provider (ISP) that blocks objectionable material before it enters the home can help parents who worry about their children viewing objectionable content.
Those who believe content-control software is useful may still not agree with certain ways it is used, or with mandatory general regulation of information. For example, many would disapprove of filtering viewpoints on moral or political issues, agreeing that this could become support for propaganda. Many would also find it unacceptable that an ISP, whether by law or by the ISP's own choice, should deploy such software without allowing the users to disable the filtering for their own connections. In addition, some argue that using content-control software may violate sections 13 and 17 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Another solution is to use a Web site specifically designed as a kid-safe "front end" to the Internet. One such site is Bess (located at http://www.bess.com). You simply set Bess as the default starter page for your Web browser, and the site itself limits access to unacceptable Web sites.

Bypassing filters

Some software may be bypassed successfully by using alternative protocols such as FTP or telnet, conducting searches in a different language, or using a proxy server. Some of the more poorly-designed filters can be shut down by killing their processes; for example, in Microsoft Windows through the Windows Task Manager, or in Mac OS X using Activity Monitor. Numerous work-arounds and counters by content-control software creators to work-arounds exist.

Many content filters have an option which allows authorized people to bypass the content filter. This is especially useful in environments where the computer is being supervised and the content filter is aggressively blocking web sites which need to be accessed.

Note that these are all solutions to a sticky dilemma facing the online community. How do you protect sensitive users (particularly children) from the bad things on the Internet, while at the same time avoiding censorship of controversial content? Do you want access to everything available online, or do you want it "pre-filtered" according to someone else's morals and tastes? When does limiting access to certain types of information become censorship?

How to make the Internet safe for kids

How to Make the Internet safe for Kids