A recent study done by web security nuts Symantec showed that children are smarter than their parents: They have learned to hide their internet usage:
What about what your kids are looking at online?
Of those British parents questioned, while 81 per cent said they were confident they knew what their kids were viewing online, 31 per cent of the British kids in the survey said their mum and dads had no idea what they were looking at online.
Whoops. Looks like the number are a bit off there, huh? Your kids are pwning you and you don’t even know it.
Roenne is only 2.5 years old. Yet she’s already seen some of the interwebs (a lot, actually).
I haven’t had the “conversations” yet about the interwebs nor have I begun really thinking about managing her online use (or monitoring)…
What have you guys done to “help” your kids be “safe” online?
[Image from Atention]
We have chosen to put the computer in a public place and to use an internet filter. They are not allowed to do random searches on the internet and we have set up a user account that limits the amount of time they are allowed on the internet.
is that on a windows box?
yes… XP – using Net Nanny which allows time management of internet access….
We have a laptop for the kids to use to download music, play games, etc. They can only do so with Sharon or myself present. We have it with a parental setting. No doubt they are smart. I think we still need to teach kids about integrity at a young age. There's a lot of crap that they can fall into by accident online(and in life). A lot of our friends are homeschooling online and on the computer. My kids get a pencil and paper and books. (in the afternoon they are in the basement on Playstation playing Rockband,so hilarious…my 8 year old singing Nirvana!)
This is a good topic. I think we need to have a lot of open conversations early about the online stuff. There have been a lot of marriages and Christian walks interrupted by the advent of porn. There is no avoiding it. It's a frightening thing. No big shock about the depravity, but sometimes the morphing of it can be surprising.
I don't have kids but I use openDNS for a router level filtering. I have tried hedgbuilders and some other computer level filtering systems (I work with some after school programs that asked me to try several systems for them to see what works). I didn't find any computer level systems that worked well enough to be useful without blocking most of the internet. I had a couple that completely blocked RSS feeds because they might contain porn.
My kids are one and two. They have not been on the internet yet. Lucky me.
Kids are getting more and more tech savvy younger these days (I say this when I'm only 20). It's scary when I think about how young I was (10) when I started carousing the pornagraphy sites.
Anecdote: A couple of years ago, while I was hanging out at an internet cafe/LAN center, there was a girl sitting next to me that was probably no older than 5 (I think was with her mom or older sister). She was logged into her Myspace account. Part of me wanted to kick her mom in the face (at the time).
you should have kicked her… in Jesus name.
our house has two laptops. there is no usage without a parent present or giving permission… not the most efficient method, but plenty effective for now.
Protecting kids is like wearing a helmet in case you fall out of bed. Just make enough money so they don't whore themselves for bus money that's about all you can do, besides, I hear they have white blood cells. That must count for something.