Kids online

The Internet is a great place for children to learn and entertain themselves but not every site is as innocent as they are. Learning how to protect your children from the dangers of the Internet will enhance their online experience and knowing they are safe will give you peace of mind.

The Internet is an anonymous place where it is easy to be what you want to be and live your dreams. This is part of the fascination and fun for kids (and adults!) but it can also be a trap. Children are not as wary as adults and that can make them vulnerable. Keeping the kids on the
straight and narrow can be more difficult on the web than it is in real life.

Supervision is a key factor in the process. Putting the computer in a family room rather than your child’s bedroom is a good start. In conjunction with that, you could install some software that blocks adult sites and other sites of your choosing. This is really helpful because
even innocent searches can return unsavoury results. You can also use this software to restrict access at certain times for certain users so you know exactly when you children can and cannot access the Internet. Windows Vista® has parental controls built-in (Start > Control Panel > User Accounts and Family Safety > Parental Controls) and as
long as your children are given a Limited account (as opposed to an Administrator account) then it will work quite effectively.

Chat rooms are good for kids to talk with their friends but you should monitor who they talk to and what is being said; not everyone is who they say they are.

There are many websites that offer sound advice on avoiding pitfalls on the Internet. A good starting point is www.parentscentre.gov.uk.

How The TechGuys can help

Our Kids Safe Online Setup service is specifically designed to keep your children from the negative side of the Internet. We can advise you on how to make your computer safe and we'll also show you how to change the parental controls should you ever need to in the future.