What is there to say about the world children live in these days? Sexed-up television, pornographic Internet sites and videos and violent board games. A world that is lowering its standards, values, and morals every day, surrounds our children.
What is even worse is that we cannot use Parental Controls any more to keep our children away from websites of an adult nature. Children nowadays are advanced in technology, and sometimes more so than their parents. How can we protect our children against online dangers? How can we as parents provide safety for our children, while battling the corruption going on worldwide?
Parental Controls are available on most types of Internet software, yet today, children are skilled at by-passing these Parental Controls. So, what can we do? We can guard our children by monitoring their time spent on the Internet closely.
How to use parental controls: It depends on which Internet provider you use, however, I will speak only of the Internet providers I know about, since not all programs are the same. To use AOL Parental Controls, you will need to go to ‘Safety’ on the toolbar and click on ‘Parental Controls’.
Once you arrive there, you will see a drop-down list of available usernames. Search for your child’s username and click on it. You will see a popup window appear. Click on ‘Edit Web Control’ and then click ‘Kids Only’, and close. Now your child is protected against Internet sites that hold potential dangers.
Chat rooms can be serious dangers to children, since anyone can go into these rooms. Often predators frequent these areas, so as to entice children into a web of danger. In the AOL browser, click on ‘Safety’ and then click on ‘Parental Controls’.
Next, following the same steps click on the ‘Edit IM Controls’, ‘Edit E-mail Controls’, and ‘Edit Chat Control’ and follow the same steps as you did to setup the ‘Parental Controls’.
It is wise to setup passwords. Passwords will offer additional protection and safety for your child. Do not give your child the passwords, since this will give the child control of your Internet connections, and the child might reset the controls.
It is also a good idea to activate your ‘Popup Controllers’ too, since if you do not turn on the controls, pop ups could corrupt your system, or popup adult content, which your child will see when online. You can go into ‘AOL Safety’ at the toolbar to start these popup guards.
If you use Internet Explorer; open a page. Click on ‘Tools’ at the top menu, then click ‘Popup Blocker’ and then click ‘Popup Blocker Settings’. Read the details carefully and set the program at medium. Medium is the norm and will block most pop ups. If you put the settings higher than medium, you could find it difficult to open websites for browsing.
Some of the dangers presented to children online include: Internet Porn; Child Porn; Child Sexual Abuse; Mobile Porn; and more. As you can see, your child is in danger, and if you want to master safety, you will have to monitor, and take steps to safeguard your child against online dangers.
According to recent surveys, students have encountered sexual malpractices through webcams, instant messengers, and mobile phones. Additional studies reveal that pornographic websites are making more profit than each of CBS, ABC, and NBC television channels each year. The studies claim that the largest group that views porn sites are children and that these children are typically between the ages of twelve and seventeen.
The statistics showed that about 74% of all the porn sites had uncontrolled banners, while another 66% of the websites did not issue adult content warnings. Furthermore, another 11% of the sites did not have ’sexually explicit content’ warnings and 25% boxed in their visitors by not allowing them to leave their websites. Only 3% of the websites out of more than– millions adult sites requested adult permission for minors. So, it is vital to protect your child now!
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