So for part two I will be discussing some of the measures you can take to safeguard your children by configuring your browser. There are several browsers out there, and these are easily downloadable by you kid if you have not setup the proper user accounts. Be sure to not allow the installation of new programs by non administrator users. See previous blog post for more details. Now for the details.
Many high speed internet providers like Comcast DSL or Time Warner offer free parental controls so it is a good idea to make sure those are configured as well as your browser settings to get maximum protection. We’ll be using internet explorer for the purpose of this example. But settings are similar for the other major browsers as well.
Click on the Tools menu on your browser and select internet options. There are several section you can configure and I recommend you get familiar with all of the terminology. But for a quick start you would select the Security tab. Here you can configure the level of security for several different internet zones. Be sure to set it at a level that makes sense for your kids use. You can also set the list of restricted sites in this section.
After configuring the security tab you can select the Privacy tab which primarily controls cookies from being placed on your computer from unwanted sites and also controls pop-ups. The last thing you want is for unwanted ads and images popping up while your kid is surfing the net.
Finally the Content tab. You will want to enable the content advisor feature. Here you can actually choose what users are allowed to see in certain predefined categories. You can block a great number of sites by configuring these settings as well as restricting viewing sites that have no rating. In other words if it is a malicious site, and they did not get approval for their content, and do not have a rating, it will automatically block that particular site.
Take action now and tune in for part 3 — Making sure your high speed internet service providers software is protecting your children & how to use it.