Easy Ways to Keep the Internet Safe for All Ages.

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Author: Spanbauer, Scott nettips@spanbauer.com

INTERNET TIPS

YOU WOULDN'T ALLOW your young children to watch Sex in the City, would you? Then why give them unimpeded access to the Web, where much more salacious content is just a google away?

Until you're ready to let go and allow your children to use their own common sense when it comes to the dark side of the Net, you have to protect them--and doing so is easy, with just a little thought.

You may be tempted to buy a commercial Internet-filtering product such as Solid Oak Software's $40 Cybersitter (find.pcworld.com/48532) or SurfControl's $40 CyberPatrol (find.pcworld.com/ 48533). These programs employ antivirus-like databases of known sites and content to block objectionable Web sites, news-groups, and other Internet sources. They also log your child's online activities.

Parental-control software makes sense in some households, but I see domestic surveillance as a last resort. Before you institute blanket home censorship and snooping on the family PC, give these less intrusive browse-control tools and techniques a try.

FIRST, CLEARLY express to your children--in age-appropriate terms--your family's values with regard to sexuality and violence in the media and online. If doing so seems like a tall order, visit find.pcworld.com/48534 to read the Be Web Aware coalition's tips for parents on how to shield kids from Internet pornography. On the left side of the page are links to "Safety Tips by Age," including pointers on topics such as how much your child needs to know and is likely to comprehend. The site also offers information about violent content, hate speech, online predators, and many other Internet dangers.

Next, examine your children's access to the Internet. If they have their own computer with an unfiltered Internet connection that they can use behind their dosed bedroom door, you might as well set them free to roam the local video store. I respect my children's privacy, but it's also my job to defend them from online predators and from violent or addictive material, such as some online games. Keeping their computing out in the open on a shared computer makes that job possible. Allowing them to use the PC in complete privacy makes it impossible.

If you're unsure whether your child be safe using the Internet unsupervised, state explicitly when it's okay for them to surf and when it's not. If you need help enforcing your policy, many firewall products, as well as the parental controls offered by America Online and MSN, allow you to specify the hours when a particular user or PC may go online (see FIGURE 1). Naturally, your child may be more knowledgeable about configuring (or bypassing) such controls than you are, so do your homework and become an expert.

Browse to find.pcworld.com/49022 to read my December 2003 column, "Ultimate Network Security: How to Install a Firewall," for instructions on locking down your network (the version numbers have changed, but the steps are the same). But don't clamp down the connection without explaining your concerns to your children and coming up with a safety plan; otherwise, you'll just shoo them away to look elsewhere for unfettered Internet access.

Send your questions and tips to nettips@spanbauer.com. We pay $50 for published items. Go to find.pcworld.com/31523 for more Internet Tips.

FIGURE I: TURN OFF THE INTERNET on your child's computer by activating the connection-scheduling features in your firewall.

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By Scott Spanbauer

Scott Spanbauer is a contributing editor for PC World.