Hey All,

Many people like to allow their children on the internet and to take in all that's good of the web and it's content. But many parents are weery about it's content, with all the porn, foul language, criminal content, and so on.

While it's true that no matter how much you try, you can never always filter out every single harmful part of the web. The best thing to do is sit down and speak with your child and teach them the rights and wrong about the web and the worries that could arise.

But... for those who want to physically secure their computer and monitor the actions:

How to protect your children online. (quick guide)

1. Programs that filter out web content.

You can install programs like NetNanny or WebSecure (as examples), which will filter known websites. There are companies that surf the net 24/7 looking for as many new sites that are deemed inappropriate to children and create a database file (similar to a virus definition file for AntiViruses) and blocks the IP of the sites.
Also, some Firewalls and VirusScanners have similar options, which block sites that are deemed harmful (this, however, takes more of your time to block sites - useful for more repetitive sites)

2. Family Filters

Some sites like Altavista and Google have filters on their sites which cut out sexual or crude content from search results. This way, when a child does a history search on "White House", they won't get whitehouse.com (a "naughty" porn site) instead of whitehouse.org.
Google's SafeSearch blocks web pages containing explicit sexual content from appearing in search results.
-Use strict filtering (Filter both explicit text and explicit images)
-Use moderate filtering (Filter explicit images only - default behavior)
-Do not filter my search results.
3.E-mails

While having an e-mail with Yahoo or Hotmail is "popular" to do (while convenient to use at school) Set up an e-mail for your child with your provider so that you can use Spam Killers (with Outlook or other e-mail apps) to filter out porn spams or other offensive e-mails.

4.Chat Programs.

Some parents are very paranoid about they children chatting on the net with complete strangers. And it's true that there are pedophiles on the net. A good way to avoid this is to disallow the use of mIRC and other annonymous chatroom clients and allow a more controlled chat app like ICQ or MSN (which require to know the user). Also, for ICQ, enable the authorization required before adding to contact list for further control.

Some sites like Y(outh)TV.com has a chat section to their site (Yabber), which is monitored by moderators. They ensure that the chats remain controlled and that only children speak on these servers.

5.Online Games

It's been done, some prowlers use online games to get victims. While children shouldn't be playing games like SOF or GTA3, games like AOE2 have historical education and are popular for children to play. So while online, you can view their conversations with the other players.

6.Monitoring

If you still believe that this isn't enough, there are programs that will monitor your child activities on the internet, log it, and either send it to your e-mail or save it somewhere secure.
One program is called Spector Pro
This is the BEST product for monitoring Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, MSN Messenger, AOL IM, Yahoo IM and EVERYTHING else!
and another is called eBlaster
eBlaster is the ONLY software in the world that will capture their incoming and outgoing email and then IMMEDIATELY forward that email to you. eBlaster also captures BOTH sides of chat, instant messages, all keystrokes, websites and screenshots.
7.Trust

While all this in place is great, it's also nice to have a little trust in your child. Ask them to report to you anything that they feel scared or worried about, or something they believe is inappropriate so that you can report it later (if applicable)

Links to view

http://********netwise.org
http://www.safekids.com
http://www.software4parents.com
http://www.childnet-int.org