(Flickr: T
& Selena Middelton)
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Hello everyone, here's a piece I came across which could be a means of web access Control mechanism on for parents & wards while the kids surf.
Read on.....
We were
having a wonderful time, eating great food and enjoying actual adult
conversation with five other couples at our friend J’s house. That was back
when the kids were young and we could just toss them together like kittens and
let them play. There were eight of them, ages 5 through 10, upstairs watching
TV. Or so we thought.
We were
opening a third bottle of wine when my friend’s 7-year-old son appeared at the
end of the table with a troubled look on his face. There were pictures of naked
women all over the computer, he said.
So much for
adult conversation. We quickly abandoned our steaks and headed upstairs. It
turns out that one of the boys had been told by a schoolmate to search the
words “sexy women.” You can guess what they found. This was not exactly the
gentle introduction to the birds and bees most of us had imagined.
Our hostess
had broken two of the cardinal rules of family computing:
1. Put the computer
in a place where you can see what the kids are up to, and
2. Use some kind of
filter to keep them from getting sucked into the Net’s slimy underbelly.
This was in
the mid-2000s. Back then, it was a lot easier to safeguard the Internet because
most families shared a single home computer with their kids. Now there are so
many ways for your progeny to reach the Internet – smartphones, tablets,
laptops, etc. – it’s a flippin’ nightmare.
But it’s not
impossible, provided you have a strategy for managing Web access. You’ll have
to get your geek on and become familiar with the tools available for filtering
websites. Most important, you’ve got to start early. The sooner you teach them
the good habits of digital citizenship, the more likely those lessons will
stick.
NET
MANAGEMENT THROUGH THE AGES
How early
kids should start surfing the Net is a something only a parent can decide, says
Caroline Jones Knorr, parenting editor for Common
Sense Media, which rates thousands of Web sites, apps, games, movies and
for age-appropriate content using child development guidelines. Common Sense’s
rating system begins at age 2, which seems to me a sensible age to start
surfing. Your mileage may vary.
Age 2 to 5:
Lap surfing
The best
time to introduce kids to the Internet is when they’re still small enough to
fit on your lap, says Knorr. Co-surfing lets you teach them the basics of how
to navigate the Web, as well as things like the difference between Web content
and ads and the kinds of information they should never share.
At this age,
you really want to limit their access to a small collection of sites you know
are kid friendly and safe, like
those offered by Common Sense Media. Seeking out quality, age-appropriate
sites for your kids is one of the most important things you can do, adds Knorr.
Age 6 to 9:
Training wheels
By the time
they’re too big for your lap your kids should have a decent grounding in how
the Internet works. They’ll be surfing the Web at school and plagiarizing
Wikipedia for their homework. So the rules need to relax, slightly. (Except of
course for plagiarizing Wikipedia – that’s a no no.)
At the very
least you’ll need to expand the list of sites they’re allowed to spend time on,
and use the safe search settings inside your favorite search engines to limit
what they’re exposed to. If they love to watch videos (and what kid doesn’t?),
create a YouTube account for them and subscribe them to channels of your
choosing, suggests Knorr. Take care to limit the time they spend online and
make sure you’re in the room when they’re browsing.
As the kids
approach double digits I highly
recommend using some kind of filtering technology that can block entire
categories of offensive sites, like porn portals, hate havens or sites that
let them engage in video chats with random strangers. Most filters also offer
the option to monitor the sites your kids visit without blocking them and to
control the amount of time they spend online. Trust me: It’s much easier to int;roduce
filters now, before they hit their rebellious years and are no longer speaking
to you.
Age 10 to
12: Brace yourselves
Up til now,
regulating your kids’ Internet access been easy. Those days are over. By the
time they hit their tweens your kids are probably more tech-savvy than you are.
They will easily circumvent any simple controls you’ve applied and may be able
to figure out workarounds for the filters you’ve deployed – like creating new
user accounts that aren’t being monitored, or sneaking onto devices that aren’t
blocked, like (ahem) their parents’.
At this age,
personal privacy and the risks of oversharing become important, notes Knorr.
Even though they’re not supposed to open accounts on Facebook and other social
networks until they’re 13, many kids start before then. You should
join any social networks they belong to and talk with them about how you’re
allowed to interact in front of their online friends. You’ll want to carefully go
over their privacy settings on Facebook and other social media sites,
and talk about the kinds of things they should never share online, especially
physical locations and photos.
Age 13 to
15: Be afraid, be very afraid
By now your
little darlings have become full-blown hormone-crazed teenagers with
smartphones and accounts on social
networks you’ve never heard of. Scary? You bet.
The biggest
dangers for young teens are not what they can find on the Internet as much as
what can find them – creeps,
stalkers, and bullies, some of whom may be their own classmates.
Oversharing, acting out and seeking external validation from strangers are
three common teen behaviors you have to watch out for at this age, says Knorr.
At the same
time, they’re growing into adults and chafing at parental restrictions. So
you’ll want to ease off the blocking and amp up the monitoring. You’ll also
need to secure their phones; most carriers offer some kind of parental controls
for an additional fee, or you can download an app from iTunes or Google Play.
If your child’s phone has a password, you’ll need to know it so you can check
it regularly. But you may have to threaten the nuclear option – total
communications disconnect – to force them to reveal it.
Age 16+:
Cruise control
If you’ve
done your job right, your kids should be pretty savvy netizens by now. You may
be able to stop blocking content entirely, but you probably still want to
monitor them periodically.
Here the
biggest worry is the damage your proto-adults can do to their own nascent
reputations. Unlike Las Vegas, what happens on Facebook doesn’t stay on
Facebook – or any other social network. Rest assured any embarrassing photos or
off-color comments will be found by college admissions officers, future
employers, and even potential spouses. Your job is to convince your kids this
stuff matters, help them locate their past mistakes,and bury them as deeply as
possible.
Heck, if you’re
willing to hand your child the keys to the car, you should be willing to hand
them the keys to the Internet. That doesn’t mean you can’t tell them to slow
down every so often, or to avoid the worst neighborhoods. Whether they listen,
though, is entirely up to them.
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