The internet moves very fast. The
variety of individuals and content that your child may be exposed to is
incomparable to any other congregation. Hence, it is important for the
safety of your child that you have a mechanism in place to weed out
undesirable elements.
The Threat
But where do you start? Let us
first look at the threats. Threats can arise from the following three broad
sources: |
Malicious code
Viruses, Trojans and other
harmful software that can cause instability in your system, steal personal
information, etc. The most you can do here is to secure your PC with a
recognized anti-virus and a firewall.
Adult content
Adult sites and content featuring
violence, drugs, crime and obscenities. There are many measures to block
such content. We shall discuss them in great detail later.
Undesirable interaction
Possibilities of undesirable
interaction across all platforms - emails, chats, video calling, video and
sound enabled multiplayer gaming. Over the World Wide Web, there is little
accountability for using distasteful language from crude sexual comments to
racial remarks.
The Solution
Now let us look at
the solutions. As discussed above, the threats arising from malicious code
can be laid to rest using a good antivirus and firewall. The most common
antivirus programs include Norton, McAfee, ESET NOD32, BitDefender, ClamWin
and Comodo. There are ways to build a wall to keep adult content away from
your child. The first measure you can take is to enable content control
through your browser. IE users can find the option in Tools> Internet
Options > Content Advisor (Click enable). Select the appropriate level of
content control you wish to exercise.
Over the basic
browser based protection, you can install some parental content control
software that help you monitor as well as set up rules for internet usage.
It is important to protect your
children while they are on gaming platforms, since these platforms often
offer chat and video communication through which your child can get exposed
to undesirable content. It is also advisable to keep a check on the types of
games your child is playing. All licensed games are rated by the ESRB. When
you buy a game for your child, look at the rating on the label on the box,
as pointed out in the figure below.
The image below states the age
and ratings provided by the ESRB for rating gaming content.
Gaming consoles also have safety features such as accounts and pass codes
for different users. The PSP and PS3 offer password protection in the
Security menu > Pass-code. The default is 0000.
Securing Your Operating System
It is possible
to add another layer of security against offensive material. You can secure
your OS by enabling the content control feature in Windows itself. Click
Start> go to instant search and type “parental”. You will see the shortcut
to Parental Controls. Click the shortcut and you will be greeted by the
Parental Control screen. Here you can create a new account for each of your
kids and control the following features:
All OS and gaming
console manufacturers are aware of the need for parental guidance for
accessing the internet. Their official sites act as good resources for
knowledge of the options as well as recommended updates. The official help
sites for some of the common OS are mentioned below.
Some websites that talk about online child safety in detail and have
products to secure the internet are:
Some programs that are exclusively built for protecting your child against
the hazards of the internet are listed below.
For Windows users, the following products are available:
-
Windows Live Family Safety (proprietary, free)
-
K9
Web Protection (proprietary, free for home use)
-
NetNanny (proprietary)
-
Cyclope-Series (proprietary)
-
SurfWatch (proprietary)
-
Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway (proprietary)
Mac users can protect their children through the following popular
child-security products:
-
SurfWatch (proprietary, free for home use)
-
K9
Web Protection (proprietary, free for home use)
All said and done, sometimes the simplest solution turns out to be the best
one. By creating a separate login account for each of your kids and visiting
the browser history and “Activity Viewer” feature under “User Controls >
Parental Control” is all it takes to keep a tab on your child’s activities
on the internet.
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