Well, it started. I now have a daughter who has a computer in her room. Still no TV, just a computer…It all started when we decided to purchase a new computer for ourselves and were subsequently faced with the dilemma of what and where to put our old computer. After a lot of discussion and pleading from our eight year old we decided to let her put the computer in her room. She has been fascinated with computers since the age of 1 ½ and regularly corresponds via email with her cousins, aunts, and uncles. Once we got the computer set up in her room complete with wireless internet access, we had to come to some decisions about how to keep track of and monitor what she was doing on-line. It took me one hour of research to realize how complicated it was going to be and a few more weeks of research to figure out what to do. So, here is our solution. What's yours?

The first point I want to make is there are no fail safe methods of protecting your children from every "undesirable" on the web. All options have their shortcomings and still require parental monitoring to ensure little eyes aren't seeing more than they should. Secondly, as parents we have a lot of choices in how we go about protecting our kids. Choices range from complete blocking to only establishing household rules. Your ultimate choice will probably most depend on the age of your child and what you want as a parent. Lastly, not only do we have to worry about what our kids see when they "surf" the web, but we also have to worry about instant messaging and chat rooms. It's a lot to take in, but here we go.

Parental Control Options

Internet Service Providers (ISP's) This is where you should start. Many ISP's today offer parents a lot of choices for parental control. Many allow some type of blocking and filtering of inappropriate websites and emails. AOL by far has the best reputation for state of the art parental controls, but many other ISP's are beginning to step up their efforts and also offer options for parents.

Web Browsers Both Internet Explorer and Netscape have built in, but limited controls for parents to use. In Internet Explorer parents can set limits by using their own criteria, criteria established by the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSACi) and SafeSurf, or the rating system of another organization they trust. It is important to note that both RSACi and SafeSurf rely on website owners to voluntarily (currently there are not laws requiring them to do so) rate their site, something that many choose not to do (both good and bad sites) and since the web browsers automatically block anything not rated it makes getting around on the web without a lot of "blocks" very difficult. Netscape Navigator also sets limits based on the criteria established by RSACi and SafeSurf, but to the best of my knowledge do not allow parents to set their own criteria or use the criteria of a rating agency other than the two mentioned.

Blocking/Monitoring/Filtering Software By installing blocking/monitoring/filtering software on your computer you can control what your children see and do on the internet as well as monitor what they are doing when you aren't around. Most software packages today offer the capability to do all three functions as well as offer protections for instant messaging and chat rooms.

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