Internet Safety Tips : Block Inappropriate Contents
The Internet hosts billions of web pages but a large chunk of this material may be inappropriate for your young children. Therefore, let’s explore a couple of easy ways that can possibly help parents prevent kids from viewing the dark side of the world wide web.
You don’t have be a tech-savvy person to implement any of the following stuff on your home computer(s) and all the software tools / services discussed here are available for free via the Internet.
Block Adult Sites Automatically :
Since you don’t want kids to accidentally see any of sites that contain adult content, an easy option for blocking such sites is OpenDNS.
You don’t have to download or install any software – just go to opendns.com/start in any Internet browser, choose the “Computer” option (let’s keep it simple) and follow the instructions on the screen. Once your computer is configured with OpenDNS, go to Dashboard -> Settings and set the Filtering level to either Moderate or High.
Now whenever your kid mistakenly types a URL of some adult site in the browser (e.g. whitehouse.com instead of whitehouse.gov) or clicks a link that may be pointing to an inappropriate site, the OpenDNS filters will match the address of that site against their own database of adults sites and if there’s a match, the underlying web page won’t be displayed on the child’s computer.
Prevent clicks on Malicious Sites
When you perform a search on Google or other search engines, there is a probability that some of the links appearing on the search results page could be pointing to sites that host malicious or harmful content.
To make sure that your children aren’t clicking these links, what you need is Web of Trust – it’s a simple filter that analyzes web page links in the background and adds colored icons next to them so that you child knows whether visiting the underlying site is safe or not.
Web of Trust is available for both Internet Explorer & Firefox. It can scan links appearing on almost every major search engine and even web email services. You can also use the WOT online service to find the reputation rating of any website.
Block Selected Websites (like IMs or Social sites)
The filtering option in OpenDNS is great for blocking an entire category of websites on your computer but if you are looking to block only selected sites (e.g. Orkut.com or MySpace.com) because your kids are too young to waste time on these sites, here’s a tip.
Run the Hostsman software (it’s a freeware for Windows) and press Ctrl+O to open the hosts file editor. Click the “Add” icon and type the URLs of all the websites that you want to block on the child’s computer. Hit Save and close the hostsman application.
None of the blocked sites will ever open in any of the browsers installed on your child’s computer unless someone manually deletes the record from the hosts file.
Turn Safe Search On forever
Google, Bing, Yahoo and most other search engines allow you to search the web (and images) in “Safe Search” mode meaning you are less likely to encounter images or web pages in search results that may not be appropriate for children.
But the only problem with this approach is that it uses cookies so if you clear the browser cache, the “safe search” preference will be lost as well.
Luckily, you can force the “strict filtering” option in your browser even if the parent or the kid forgot to turn that option on himself.
The trick is that you open the Google search URL wherever it appears in the browser database and append “safe=active” before the “q” parameter.
For instance, you can type about:config in Firefox and change the keyword.url value to http://www.google.com/search?safe=active&q= – now any searches performed from the address bar will always show “safe” content.
Track Kids Activity on the Computer
While I don’t suggest using a keylogger program to monitor each and every word that your kid is typing, you may want to explore programs like Rescue Time or Slife as they will give you a good overview of how your kids are spending time at the computer.
You get to know what sites are they visiting, how much time are they spending with IM programs, what software applications are they running more frequently and how much time do they spend on individual sites.
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Thanks very interesting and informative article’s it certainly leaves food for Thought
Really Very interesting article. I am waiting for new post. Thanks
There should be courses for parents to adjust their computer and internet settings to stop certain sites being accessed as a lot of them don’t really know how to do it. When I was 13 I had pretty much free reign of the internet and that included being oblivious in chatting to friendly older men (who, it’s obvious to me now, were total perverts). Children in general can’t be trusted.
This is such a great site, I am glad I found you. My son is just getting to an age where he is using the computer more and more and it is impossible to watch what they are doing every second. Internet safety is an issue that really does worry me, there are such a lot of horror stories in the news. Really appreciate your great advice.
Really nice to find this info, it is quite frightening as a parent what it is possible for children to view on-line at the touch of a button.
I am a single mum trying to keep on top of what the kids are doing on the internet but it is so hard when they both have laptops and spend so much time on the computers as most homework is done online these days.
I read somewhere that up to 50% of the web is pornography. I learned the hard way about the need to block access to adult websites when I saw my child searching for completely innocent subjects on google, and porn websites came up!
My sister needs to do this (and so does every other parent i know). It’s not that kids these days cannot be trusted. Rather, it’s because the internet holds such a host of temptations, that it’s a wise idea to do something to keep them away from our kids. As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (did I get that right …?).
great articles, secure very important
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Yeah, I think it’s not so much that kids can’t be trusted. I know when I was a kid, I felt pretty trustworthy. It’s just that I didn’t have the best judgment. I think back on some things and just shudder!
Thanks for the great post. Yes, we should be careful nowadays, a lot of viruses, trojans and worms are all over the internet. Even the links from your friends or family can contain viruses.
I think this is really important but most of the people don’t exactly know how to block such content or using filters.I really appreciate that you have explained it here in a easy way with a the help of screen shots.Good work!
Now this is a great sum up! Thanks for the input, lot’s of useful information here.
If you are a parent, you should read this in today s lesson i am going to show you how to make sure that your kids don t get into things that they shouldn t in the appstore. Block inappropriate contents the block is free, and lasts up to 90-days you’ll need to re-request the block report inappropriate content. Re: block calls – verizon wireless community search results. Chaperone free download automatically block inappropriate content although parental controls attempts to block known adult websites and filter for inappropriate content, it websites automatically” checkbox to filter inappropriate internet content. Bing: block inappropriate contents the block is free, and lasts up to 90-days you’ll need to re-request the block report inappropriate content.
A good rule of thumb is: if you wouldn’t say it to someone’s face, don’t text it, email it, instant message it, or post it as a comment on someone’s page. Many of today’s most popular websites have easy-to-use tools that let users flag inappropriate content that others post online. It’s important for kids to know how to flag inappropriate content when they encounter it.Teach kids how to distinguish reliable sources from unreliable ones and how to verify information they find online.
Thanks for your tips on the internet safety,and you really provide the details,which can make me clearly in learning,they are helpful in prevent things bad.
You should set to your computer to block those malicious sites especially if our kids is using your computer. In this way, they will be be exposed on malicious sites in an early age.
This is another great stuff for parental control. Parents should implement this at all times. We should be aware of it all the time!
If only it were easier than this.
This is a huge issue these days. There are several non-profit organizations dedicated to raising awareness about the proliferation of explicit content on the internet. For me, I’ve found the built-in browser content filters and search options to be the most effective option.
Web of Trust is an interesting concept. . .it just seems like if I installed it, the kids would want to click on the links marked unsafe, though. Does it actually block access, or just mark the link?
There’s a lot of free software out there that can help with the parental filtering.
I don’t really agree with being too hellbent on monitoring your kids but they should definitely be watched while on the computer. The best thing for parents to do is to make children aware of the dangers and give them advice on how they can deal with it. That trust can help a child take more care.
One of the best defenses against inappropriate content is to block it before you see it. With Microsoft software there are a few different ways you can do this. Windows 7 and Windows Vista Parental Controls. Windows 7 and Windows Vista both include a rich and powerful set of parental control features to help parents monitor, manage, and administer their children’s computer use-and help keep them safe.
the more and more time I spend on the internet, the more crud I see. A filter is always nice.
I would have never thought that it was possible to block so much with a control. Thanks for the information- with as vast as the internet is, you can never be too safe on protecting your child.
I am so glad to come across this info. Im a single mum with not a great deal of computer knowledge really and I want to make sure my kids are safe online without letting them know really.
The Parental Control Bar is a free public service that helps concerned parents prevent their children from accessing adult-oriented web sites. Its free and has a simple three-step installation process to start controlling your family’s online activity. When your child attempts to access a website the toolbar first checks if the site is self-labeled, compares this site label to your parental settings and determines whether to block or allow access. If the site is not self-labeled, then the toolbar scans the extensive list of 3rd-party labels before deciding whether to block or allow.
This is really interesting, thanks for your time
Great post. Nowadays all children getting easily addicted with internet and also using it wrongly. All parents should know these tips.
Very true! Makes a change to see soeomne spell it out like that.
Open communication and trust is extremely valuable. By letting children know what is expected from them and that their safety is a top priority, they will feel that if something happens –whether they are approached by a cyber stranger or bully or receive an inappropriate e-mail – they can approach a parent to resolve the issue without feeling they are in trouble.
There will always be ways around these filters. Unfortunately will will never be completely safe. But they are good for keeping your children from coming across inappropriate content on accident.
Sadly, though- today kids are more technologically savvy then parents in a lot of cases. It’s scary, but children are starting to be able to explore anything they want at the drop of the hat, because they can work their way through security filters. What do you think sites can do to ensure that their inappropriate content is only seen by those of age?
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Cheers
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That saves me. Thanks for being so sneisble!
That was a good idea to block a porn site is not good to the children. Because many children now are watching that kind of sites. Thank you for the information.
Thanks for this tips. Nice article.
Great Article. I currently use opendns on my router to block inappropriate sites from my kids. It’s worked great so far. I can also go to their site and see a log of all the sites the kids go to and attempt to go to.
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