What is there to say about the world children inhabit these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world that is dropping its standards, values, and morals each day, surrounds our kids.
What is even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to keep our children away from websites of an adult nature. Children nowadays are advanced in technology, and sometimes more so than their parents. How can we protect our children against online dangers? How can we as parents provide safety for our children, while battling the corruption going on worldwide?
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 overseeing their activities on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you use, however, I will speak only of the Internet providers I am aware of, since all programs are different. To use AOL Parental Controls, you will have to go to Safety at the Toolbar and click on Parental Controls.
Once you arrive there, you will see a drop-down list of available usernames. Search for your child’s username and click on the username. You will see a popup window appear. Click on ‘Edit Web Control’ and then click ‘Kids Only’, and close. Now your child is guarded against Internet sites that hold potential dangers.
Chat rooms pose serious threats to children, since anyone can go into these rooms, and often predators frequent these areas, so as to entice children into a web of danger. In the AOL program, click ‘Safety’ and then click ‘Parental Controls’.
In the same way, click on the ‘Edit IM Controls’, ‘Edit E-mail Controls’, and ‘Edit Chat Control’ and follow the same steps as you did to instigate the ‘Parental Controls’.
It is a good idea to set up passwords. Having passwords will offer additional protection for your child. However, do not give your child the passwords, because this will give the child control over the Internet connection, and the child might also reset the controls.
It is also a good idea to activate your ‘Popup Controllers’ too, since if you do not turn on the controls, pop ups could carry a virus that could corrupt your computer or popup adult content, which your child will see if online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to set these popup blockers.
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 posed to children online include: Internet Porn; Child Porn; Child Sexual Abuse; Mobile Porn; and more. As you can see, your child is at serious risk, and if you want to master safety, you have to monitor, and take the steps to safeguard your child against online dangers.
According to recent studies, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Additional studies show that pornographic websites out-rate CBS, ABC, and NBC, thus making more profit than each of these television channels in a 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 results revealed that about 74% of all the porn sites had uncontrolled banners, while another 66% of the websites did not issue ‘adult content’ warnings. Moreover, another 11% of the sites did not have ’sexually explicit content’ warnings and 25% boxed in their visitors by not allowing them to 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!
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