by Marion Jones
What can we say about the world children live in these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world lowering its standards, values, and morals each day, surrounds our children.
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 guard our children by monitoring their time spent 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 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 drop-down list of available usernames. 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 guarded against websites that hold potential dangers.
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 program, 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 for 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 a good idea to use 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 set 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 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 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 surveys, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Further studies reveal that pornographic websites are making more profit than each of CBS, ABC, and NBC television channels each year. The surveys claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children and that these children are typically between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The statistics showed that around 74% of the porn sites had unmonitored banners, while another 66% of the sites did not issue adult content warnings. Another 11% of the sites did not have sexually explicit content warnings, and 25% mousetrapped the visitors, by not allowing them to leave the sites. Only 3% of the websites out of more than 14 millions adult sites requested adult permission for minors. Protect your child now!