What is there to say about the world children live in these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world that is lowering its standards, values, and morals every day, surrounds our children.
What makes it even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to prevent our children from accessing websites of an adult nature. These days children are knowledgeable about technology and often more so than their parents. How can we keep our children safe from online dangers? How can we as parents provide safety for our children, while still battling the corruption going on around the world?
Parental Controls are available on most types of Internet software, yet today, children are skilled at by-passing these Parental Controls. So, what can we do? We can protect our kids by monitoring their time spent on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you have, however, I will speak only of the Internet providers I know about, since not all programs are the same. To use AOL Parental Controls, you will have to go to ‘Safety’ on the toolbar and click on ‘Parental Controls’.
Once you get there, you will see a list of usernames available. Search for your child’s username and click on it. You will see a popup window appear. Click on ‘Edit Web Control’ and then click ‘Kids Only’, and close. Now your child is protected against dangerous sites.
Chat rooms pose very serious threats to children, since anyone can go into these rooms. Often predators frequent these areas, in order to entice children into their dangerous network. In the AOL browser, click on ‘Safety’ and then click on ‘Parental Controls’.
In the same way, click on the ‘Edit IM Controls’, ‘Edit E-mail Controls’, and ‘Edit Chat Control’ and complete the same steps as you did to instigate the ‘Parental Controls’.
It is wise to setup passwords. Passwords will offer additional protection and safety to your child. Do not give your child the passwords, since this will give the child control of your Internet connections, and the child might reset the controls.
It is also wise to activate your ‘Popup Controllers’ too, since if you do not turn on the controls, pop ups could corrupt your system, or popup adult content, which your child will see if online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to start these popup guards.
If you use Internet Explorer; open a page. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top menu, then click ‘Popup Blocker’ and then click ‘Popup Blocker Settings’. Read the details carefully and set the program at medium. Medium is the norm and will block most pop ups. If you put the settings higher than medium, you could find it difficult to open websites for browsing.
Some of the dangers presented to children online include: Internet Porn; Child Porn; Child Sexual Abuse; Mobile Porn; and more. So, your child is in danger, and if you want to master safety, you will have to monitor, and take steps to safeguard your child against online dangers.
According to recent surveys, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Additional studies show that pornographic websites are making more profit than each of CBS, ABC, and NBC television channels each year. The studies claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children. These children are between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The statistics revealed that about 74% of all the porn sites had uncontrolled banners, while another 66% of the websites did not give ‘adult content’ warnings. Moreover, another 11% of the sites did not have ’sexually explicit content’ warnings and 25% trapped their visitors by not letting them leave their websites. Only 3% of the websites out of more than 14 millions adult websites requested adult permission for minors to visit. So, protect your child now!
If you are concerned about Child Safety Online or Child Safety in general, please visit our web-based resource.