A Free Educational Resource Created by Carnegie Mellon University to Empower You to Secure Your Part of Cyberspace

Parental Control Software

Software that monitors and limits children's online activity

Monitoring and controlling your child's online activities is a daunting task, but there are many software applications available that can help. You can find software that will limit the time your kids spend online, block inappropriate Web pages, monitor instant messenger (IM) chats, restrict game play, block file-sharing programs, or keep your kids from sending personal information online. Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as AOL,  even offer free parental control services, and some operating systmes have parental controls built in. Most of these applications give you an override password and allow you to set up a separate account for each child so you can allow older children more freedom.

Unfortunately, these products are not a cure-all. These days, kids are able to get online from many different locations, including at school, at the library, on laptops, and on cell phones. It is still important to teach your children safe online behavior so they can stay safe even when they are beyond the reach of parental control software.

Protective Measures

Settings

  • Set up a content filter tool through the browser to block inappropriate sites: Some of the popular browsers provide a content filtering tool. Microsoft's Internet Explorer, for example, includes a Content Advisor feature, which allows you to create a list of approved and blocked sites. For instructions on setting up Content Advisor, see a tutoria  Web site. To avoid having to create a list of approved sites one Web page at a time, you can set Content Advisor to work from an Internet content rating system, such as SafeSurf  or ICRA .

Tools

  • Kid-safe search engines: There are many search engines on the Internet that filter out offensive content and only show sites from an approved list. These include Yahooligans  and KidsClick .

  • Internet filters: Most Internet filtering software works by checking the site that your child wants to visit against a list of objectionable sites. The drawbacks of this method include underblocking, where offensive sites not on the list get through, and overblocking, where sites that deal with health or sex education issues get blocked. Make sure to check the criteria that the software uses to block sites. Some examples of Internet filters include WebBlock , Bsafe Online , and EnoLogic NetFilter .

  • All-in-one parental control software: Most of the parental control software out there performs multiple functions. Many of these include IM filters that can either immediately shut down a conversation that contains offensive material or block out the offending words. There are a wide variety of options available, so do your research to find out which tool is right for you. The GetNetWise  Web site can help you compare features on different software packages.

Ethical

Many advocacy groups have raised concerns about the types of sites that parental control software blocks. Some of these applications block certain political, human rights, animal rights, artistic, gay/lesbian/bisexual issues, health, and sex education sites. This is a serious issue since many libraries and schools are required to use this software as a result of the Children's Internet Protection Act, thus blocking constitutionally protected sites for both adults and children. Software applications vary in which sites they block, so do your research to make sure that your software is only blocking the sites you want blocked.

References

Links

My home page