We are very strict on our kids use of the internet. Not only do we limit game time, web surfing is just not allowed. We may occasionally open up a kid-friendly site for them and allow them to look around, but the problem is that it is still so easy for them to end up somewhere they shouldn’t be. We joke about it now, but really it’s not funny, one day while allowing our son to use a kid-friendly web-site I returned from the other room to find him on the Victoria Secret site.
Part of the issue is that half of the commercials now-a-days have web addresses in them – they the address. So, kids and their trap-like minds remember them and type them in. Where they end up – who knows!
Because of the utmost importance of this issue, below is guest post written by a company called PC Pandora. Their goal is to help you protect your kids on the internet.
From PC Pandora:
Internet safety is (or at least should very much be) a top concern for parents in the 21st century. But if parents REALLY want to keep their kids safe online, they need to know what they are doing on the computer, and what is happening in their online lives.
Blocking and filtering websites are good tactics for the younger crowd, but even the youngest Internet-savvy ‘tween can get around them. Education and discussion are both key, but if you think your kids are going to tell you, honestly, everything they are doing online – you are just being silly.
The key to it all is simply being informed. That’s where a tool like our computer monitoring software, PC Pandora, comes to the rescue. It will show you everything they do, so you can step in, talk to your child, and put a stop to behavior you may not approve of.
Whether it’s chatting with strangers (and potential internet predators), bullying others, being a victim of cyberbullying or looking at Internet pornography, what they are not telling you will be shown clear as day. If you aren’t monitoring their activity, how can you know what they are doing – how do you know they are staying safe?
This is not an issue of privacy, nor is it an issue of trust – it’s called being a 21st century parent. (By the way, whatever happened to “I am the parent. My house. My rules?”)
Don’t give your kids unfiltered and unsupervised access to the Internet. Know what they are doing. Make sure you have a tool in place that will tell you what they never will. It’s a new responsibility we have as parents in the digital age.
And keep this in mind: if you aren’t monitoring what your kids do online and aren’t watching them closely as they explore the Internet, chances are someone else is…
Get $10 off any PC Pandora purchase with the coupon code SMELLY.
This is a sponsored post by PC Pandora.
About Kim
My kids are way too small for this right now, but in the future I will have to look into this. Thanks Kim!
I have to say that I’m relieved to have not had to bring my kids up NOW. I’d say that things were simpler, at least at certain ages (until the teenaged or pre-teen years). Love the fact that there is software like this to protect my future grandkids (fingers crossed :-)
This sounds like wonderful software. I don’t allow my kids online yet, but Gav is getting to the age where he wants to check things out. I may look into this further, as I know my time is coming where my kids are online. Thanks!
The internet is an entirely different world and just because they’re in the safety of their own home doesn’t mean it’s not as scary or dangerous as the real world. Turn your back for a second and they’re someplace they shouldn’t be. Something like this is great and wish it was around 15 years ago when I set my cousin up with internet so his granddaughter (he adopted her) could go to the Disney and Nicholodeon sites. She’d found a way around the parental controls we set up for her and went to other sites. They were safe sites but could just as easily not have been.
Internet safety is a huge concern for our family. Our almost 10 year old son has started to take a real interest in internet activities and being the internet savvy mom I am, I want to help him embrace everything the internet has to offer. But I also see the risks involved with giving him that kind of freedom. This sounds like a really useful program to curb some of those internet issues I’d like to keep my son away from.
We opt for protection and monitoring not so much because we don’t trust our kids or their curiosity, but rather for the accidental site visits and ad clicks. There are plenty of safe-sounding sites and ads out there so it’s nice to have that extra layer of protection when I’m unable to watch over their shoulders. :)
My kids are too young to go online yet (well, they’re too young to know I’m keeping something majorly awesome from them) but when they’re older and I’m ready to show them the net I’ll most defiantly get a monitoring program like this.