The Internet offers a vast amount of content and resources to its users, some of which may not be appropriate for children. While there is no way to guarantee that children won't stumble across something questionable while using the Internet, there are steps that parents can take to help protect their children from such content and to make their online experience a safe one.

If your children are too young to type or to change settings on the computer, it is unlikely that they would be able to use e-mail, newsgroups, or chat rooms without your assistance. Using an Internet web browser to view web pages, however, is something that even very young children can learn to do on their own. Therefore, a simple child protection technique to use around young children is to set the default home page of your Internet web browser to one of the many child-friendly web directories available.

For older children, there are several software products available that parents can use to block access to questionable web sites. Some of these software products can also filter the content your children can see in email as well as restrict their access to certain types of chat rooms. While there is always a chance that computer-savvy kids might be able to find ways to work around the restrictions imposed by parental control software, such programs can still provide an extra level of protection for parents who would like to control the type of content that is available to their children on the Internet.

Another option available to parents is the use of parental monitoring software. Instead of filtering out the content that your children are able to view while online, monitoring software provides parents with a log of the web pages that their children have visited, the newsgroup articles that they read, and the chat rooms they frequent. Parental monitoring software provides children with the full access to the Internet's various resources while allowing the parent to decide which of the content and resources their children view and use might be inappropriate. Several such products are listed below:

Parental Control Software

PureSight Active Content Recognition
FREE to Road Runner Subscribers! ($60 value)

Cyber Patrol
The Learning Company Properties, Inc.; Microsystems Software
7 day free trial, renewable

Cyber Sentinel
Security Software Systems, Inc.
free phone support for 30 days for registered users

Cyber Sitter
Solid Oak Software, Inc.
10 day free trial

Net Nanny
Net Nanny Software International, Inc.
30 day free trial

ChildWebGuardian
Zecos Software
On-Line Demo

Informational Web Sites

SafeKids.com

Net-mom's Internet Safe House