Whilst many of us are cautious towards our children's use of the internet many of us do not know how to go about ensuring our children's internet use remains safe and how we can prevent them from becoming exposed to dangers whilst still allowing them their freedom. Many of us have heard of parental control software that allow us to block sites from our child's searches but few people use them – either thinking they are too complicated or too cumbersome to use- or know the full extent of safety features they make available. With that in mind we thought it would be worth looking at the features and benefits that parental control software allows. When it comes to raising awareness about internet safety for parents these kinds of tools are worth considering especially if you cannot or choose not to supervise your child's internet use physically.
So we now turn to the features the most common and most well-known of which is blocking your child from accessing inappropriate content. This is the most well-known and often the most beneficial of all the features available. This feature simply blocks your children from accessing anything that would be deemed "adult". Advanced versions of this software feature include blocking inappropriate advertisements on appropriate sites. These filters work by blocking certain terms and sites and are constantly being updated by specialist who designate site appropriateness. Many versions of these software's allow you to control what is allowed access to so you can adjust settings based on your child's developmental progress. This software feature can block adult sites, age restricted sites, sites with violent and inappropriate content as well as other sites such as file sharing sites and chat rooms. Blocking these sites from your child's access not only stop them from viewing inappropriate or harmful content but it also stops them being exposed to harmful people.
The second set of features to be addressed are tracking features which allow you to monitor what your child views and with whom they are talking to. The most "invasive" of these are direct monitoring or remote viewing features which let you view what your child is viewing from another computer. This form of monitoring is less directly invasive towards your child's privacy whilst still allowing you complete control of monitoring your child's online activity. Less invasive and time consuming monitoring options include report tracking and chat room tracking which records all the sites your child visits and any conversations they may be having online. These forms of tracking features allow you to monitor your child's use of the internet and you can simply skim over their visits and conversations without having to invade their privacy too much. This tracking will often flag up potential problems for you so that you can monitor it without having to spend too much time which we all as parents know is in short enough supply as it is.
These are the main features that most software includes however many programs offer a variety of other benefits and features. Some beneficial controls include time limits and time blocking of your child's internet access. This involves stopping your child accessing the internet at certain times or only allowing a set period of use per day. At the end of this period the computer's internet access will be blocked. This allows you to encourage non-internet based social interaction and prevents them becoming addicted to online gaming or from accessing inappropriate material. Secondly many features allow you to receive instantaneous updates of any attempts to access inappropriate material and can notify you via email, SMS or phone.