Protect Your Computer With Parental Controls

Children looking to explore the internet need parental controls to safeguard them online.

The days are over when a easy password was all it took for parents to keep their kids out of danger online.  Parental controls are more sophisticated to stay up to date with computer technology. Many parents may not even be aware controls are available to them. Most of the parental control tools available, function to block out or to filter content.

Add-on parental control software can monitor a child’s computer use in order to observe web sites, or chat rooms, and to intervene according to certain parameters, such as a match in a database of forbidden words.  Controls can also be applied to online content ranging from explicit songs to watching objectionable movies.  Controls may be used to turn off the computer during a specific time of day.

The Computer Usage Management Tool, unlike content filters, focuses on allowing parents to balance their child’s computer time by regulating game playing time. The main idea of these applications is to allow parents to put some education into the computer time of children, by having the child earn time for games by working through educational programs.



SOME CONTROLS PARENTS CAN PUT ON A COMPUTER:

Content filters
They will limit access to appropriate content, Content filters were the first popular type of parental control to limit access to internet.

Control of use or time
These control the use of the computer by placing a limit on the time a child can be on the computer, or not allowing certain types of programs.

Computer monitoring
Tracks location and activity when using the computer.

Computer usage management tools
Enables parents to enforce learning time a child computing.

Proxy Servers
A web browser sends a request for web content to the proxy server rather than directly to the web server. The proxy server then gets the web page from the server and passes on the content to the browser.  Proxy servers can inspect the data being sent and received, and intervene depending on various criteria relating to content of the page or the URL being requested.

Still don’t think you need to monitor the your childs computer use?

Several years ago, when my children started surfing the computer regularly, I monitored their use. I regularly checked the web history, and I quietly reviewed the pages they had looked at. One day I found all history had been deleted. They were told that if I found the history section deleted again, they would be banned from using the computer. I checked the web pages in history every 2 or 3 days. I wasn’t worried or concerned.
Imagine my surprise, when I was inspecting the history one day, and I noticed my daughter, age 12, was looking at dating sites! I also found a web page she had designed and set up about herself.  Today, there are social sites like facebook, and myspace and chat messaging that kids call fall victim to.  Don’t wait to find out the hard way. Call IQ Computer Services .