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 lowering its standards, values, and morals each day, surrounds our kids.
What makes it even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to prevent our children from visiting websites of an adult nature. These days children are knowledgeable about technology and sometimes more so than their parents. How can we keep our children safe from Internet 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 children by overseeing their activities on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you have, however, I will write only of the Internet providers I am aware of, since not all programs are the same. 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 list of usernames available. Look 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 protected against dangerous sites.
Chat rooms pose serious threats to children, since anyone can go into these rooms, and often predators frequent these areas, so as to draw 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 wise to set up passwords. Having passwords will offer additional safety 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 even 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 something that will corrupt your system or popup adult content, which your child will see when online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to set these popup controls.
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 information carefully and set the program at medium. Medium is standard 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 conquer safety, you will have to monitor, and take 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 reveal that pornographic websites are making more profit than each of CBS, ABC, and NBC television channels in a year. The surveys claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children. These children are between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The results showed that around 74% of all the porn sites had uncontrolled banners, while another 66% of the websites did not issue adult content warnings. Furthermore, 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 sites requested adult permission for minors. So, it is vital to protect your child now!