software to monitor child internet use

In article
,
Beliavsky wrote:

What software are people using to monitor and control their children's
Internet use? We have a broadband connection to a computer running
Windows XP. For our 4yo boy, the current problem is not his looking at
"adult" material but his registering at various web sites, giving out
personal information such as his name and address. I'd like to
restrict his surfing to sites that his parents have approved, such as
pbskids.org .

DH tells me that the next version of Mac OS has excellent parental controls.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features...lcontrols.html

Can't help with Windoze, though.

WRT e-mail addies: our kids have them, as our package from the ISP includes 5
addresses. ATM the e-mail is directed to us, of course. Sue, you will be
waiting a long time if you want the kids to have spam-free e-mail -- ain't
gonna happen!

In the longer term, DH plans to set up a subnet for the kids, which will give
us complete control of the computer. The kids can reinstall the OS if they
like, but they still won't be able to bypass the subnet! (Could it be that DH
thinks he will breed devious geeks?!)

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/

"Chookie" wrote in message
addresses. ATM the e-mail is directed to us, of course. Sue, you will be
waiting a long time if you want the kids to have spam-free e-mail -- ain't
gonna happen!

Oh I know, it's the inappropriate spam that bothers me. There have been some
really graphic things come through the email. I can and have blocked them,
but still there is some things that get through. So far the girls are not
interested in emailing, if they do email, they use mine because I have all
the rules set up. They use AIM if they want to talk with their friends.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)

Sue wrote:
"Chookie" wrote in message
addresses. ATM the e-mail is directed to us, of course. Sue, you will be
waiting a long time if you want the kids to have spam-free e-mail -- ain't
gonna happen!

Oh I know, it's the inappropriate spam that bothers me. There have been some
really graphic things come through the email. I can and have blocked them,
but still there is some things that get through. So far the girls are not
interested in emailing, if they do email, they use mine because I have all
the rules set up. They use AIM if they want to talk with their friends.

AIM and the other IM programs do create logs of the chats. You should
let your DD know that you will be looking at the logs from time to time
to see to whom she is talking and to makes sure the talks are appropriate.

I am a mentor to a boy who was 8. We were at a center where they had a
program to keep men involved with their kids as well as to help them
with jobs. Apparently, while they were surfing the internet for jobs,
they surfed for other inappropriate content. When the kid saw the
pictures (they were left on the screen or the sites set IE home page to
this), he covered his eyes and said "ugh!" It was so cute. Needless to
saw, I changed the picture real fast. I didn't want the people who ran
the center to think that I was stupid enough to look at that sort of
content with kids around. Although I recommend that your DD not be
exposed to that sort of content, I doubt that it will have much of an
impact on her. She will go to a site that is more interesting to her
right away.

Jeff

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Sarah Vaughan wrote:
Of course a child of that age
doesn't *need* breastfeeding/a computer (barring unusual special
circumstances), but that doesn't stop those things from being enjoying


Sure, my 18 month old likes playing on my computer, but I am not
likely to buy a 4 year old her own computer. She can use mine, which
requires me to login, and I'd be around to see what it's being used
for.
As she gets older (school aged) she'd likely use it more
independently, but I will be discouraging its use as a game/constant
distraction as I really want my kids not to get addicted to it.

Just like TV use, it won't be forbidden but its use limited with a
focus on other activities. Of course that requires me to be involved
a bit more.

A 4 year old doesn't really need to surf the internet, and if she
wants to email friends, she can do this with my help.

Beliavsky wrote:
On Jan 12, 5:01 am, cjra wrote:
Sue wrote:

snip

My girls at 15, 12, and 11 certainly don't have an email because in
my opinion, that is where all the inappropriate stuff comes in.

Certainly not "all".

I have all
kinds of rules set up to get rid of the inappropriate stuff and still naked
women still show up, so no email for the girls until they can set up rules
and I can be confident that nothing bad shows up.
I will probably let her have an account at some point mainly so she
can communicate with her cousins spread across the globe. My teen
nephews and nieces communicate with me via email and it's great.
However it won't be without lots of discussion about appropriate use.

Another use of email would be for kids to keep in touch with friends
that they no longer see regularly, for example former classmates who
are now at a different school and/or moved away. I hope my children
will stay in touch with more of their classmates than I have. Of
course there's the phone, but some people, especially shy ones, will
prefer email.


In my state, all children in the public education system are given an
email address, with parental consent. I don't know any parent who has
refused consent, although I do know some schools choose not to
participate, either until students reach a certain grade, or don't offer
it at all for various reasons.

Narelle

On Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:57:23 -0500, "Sue"
wrote:
Oh I know, it's the inappropriate spam that bothers me. There have been some
really graphic things come through the email. I can and have blocked them,
but still there is some things that get through. So far the girls are not
interested in emailing, if they do email, they use mine because I have all
the rules set up. They use AIM if they want to talk with their friends.

My girls all have gmail accounts, and have never gotten ugly spam.
They very rarely get spam at all, actually. Anything they get is
things like newsletters from the websites they play on. The older two
have had the accounts for over 2 years. I also have gmail accounts,
and I have never even gotten 1 spam email in them. I would recommend
gmail, and I'm sure there are other types of email accounts that are
just as good.
For them to have myspaces(as all their friends do and every kid over 8
I am acquainted with) they need email addys. They do all the webkins,
epets, yville, clubpengiun and all those types of things and they all
require email addys.
I know all their passwords, and I DO check their emails and myspaces
every few days (without their permission for now, but they're just 12
and 11). We have never had any problems. The computer (yeah, just one)
is in a public area so they have no privacy on it and my husband and I
both are "nosy" when they're on it. When they're at the age where they
go off without parents, it will be different I know, but for now we're
on top of it all so that we know there can NOT be any problems. I
don't know how we'll handle it later on!! I guess we'll see when we
get there.
Marie

On Mon, 14 Jan 2008 21:48:17 -0600, "Donna Metler"
wrote:
I think I'm the only one who has said that my child has her own
computer-and, as I mentioned, the only reason she does is that we always
have extra hardware lying around. Her computer is only on when she has
permission to use it, and it's not atypical for it to go days without being
on at all, just like the TV. It's simply one toy in her collection, and it's
one of the few that requires extra effort for her to use, so therefore isn't
used much.

We only have one computer (for financial reasons), but I'd love to
have two. One for the parents and one for the children to share.

The main reason for setting up the internet for specific sites is that my DD
outgrows/gets bored with many software packages quickly, and that there's a
range of games available on PBSkids.org and the like which are of similar
quality to the purchased packages where if she plays it a few times and gets
bored, it's no big deal. It's similar to TV programs. She has a few she'll
watch when they're on and there's nothing better to do, but, really, there
haven't been many that would be enjoyed enough to make it worth buying DVDs
of them.

I can not remember how old your daughter is but I recommend
www.starfall.com . My 5 year old has been playing on that one since
she was around 3. The child can also rate the game/story at the end of
each one.
Marie