Over the last few years having Internet access available in the home has become a necessity more than a luxury. Families need to have the Internet in order for their children to keep up with school projects, homework, and most importantly, friends. Adults are finding the new world of the Internet to be mysterious and dangerous, especially for their children. Not only is it difficult to keep up with the popular Internet trends and websites, but it is even more difficult to monitor what content children are accessing. Adults need not worry too much. Here are a few of the best user-friendly Internet filtering options to help parents keep their children safe.
Pop-Up Blocker
Many children do not go looking for inappropriate or dangerous material on the Internet; it presents itself to them through pop-ups. Pop-ups are triggered by changing websites or opening certain harmless websites. Pop-ups are basically invitations to visit a new website. Sometimes they trick people into clicking a “cancel” button which does not close the pop-up but instead sends the viewer to the site anyway. Luckily for parents it is easy to remedy this problem. Many Internet browsers have an option to block pop-ups. This way, when a pop-up tries to appear, a notice will appear and the viewer can choose to allow the pop-up or ignore it. This is a great way to help children avoid the onslaught of questionable sites.
Net Nanny
Net Nanny is a program that can be purchased to help parents filter the Internet for their family. The program can be purchased for around thirty dollars. The greatest aspect of this software is that it is super user-friendly. Parents simply need to place the disk in the computer and install it, and the Net Nanny begins working right away. This is perfect for parents who are less than computer savvy. The Net Nanny will perform basic filtering actions until the parent goes into the Administration Tools window and selects the different filtering options preferred. The adult is also able to pick different reports they would like to receive regarding the Internet use in their home. This software can be an excellent tool for parents looking for help filtering the Internet in their home.
CYBERsitter
CYBERsitter is software that will help parents with their Internet filtering endeavors. This software can be purchased for around thirty-five dollars. While this program is slightly more difficult to install, its capabilities are worth the extra effort. This program is able to monitor instant messaging programs, emails, and other new age communication methods. It has many options of types of content that it will search for, and then it will email a report of the requested information to parents on a daily basis. Maybe the best part about this program is that it is very difficult for children to hack. In other words, kids won’t be able to go in and change the settings. Just make sure to follow the directions carefully to make sure setup does not become more complicated than necessary.
Internet filtering can be very difficult for parents that are not Internet savvy. Using Internet filtering programs is a great tool for parents to use to help them keep their kids safe on the Internet. While Internet filtering will not be the solution to keeping children safe on the Internet without parental interaction, these programs go to great lengths to make a parent’s job easier.