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RSS feedsWhether you use the internet for leisure or educational purposes, there's a wealth of information available online for all the family. Unfortunately, it's also a place where kids can get into trouble.
There's a lot of content available online that's inappropriate for children and has few, if any, restrictions on accessing it.
While MSN recently closed its UK chatrooms on the ground that it couldn't provide adequate protection for children using the service, few content providers are following suit and, given the fact that the internet has no geographical boundaries to speak of, it's still possible for kids to access chatrooms in the US.
With all the great resources available on the web, the last thing you'd want to do is to ban your kids from going online altogether.
Most parents will be aware of sensible guidelines to help protect their children online, such as keeping the PC in a communal place in the home and supervising or monitoring your children's internet usage.
It's difficult, however, to monitor the online activity of older children who surf the web without adult supervision. For many parents, using parental control software to help keep their kids safe and stop them from viewing harmful content provides additional peace of mind.
We've taken a look at some of the services and software available today that give parents more control over their children's online activities.
SAFE SERVICES
One option is to sign up to a family-friendly ISP, which will offer parental controls as part of its bundle of services and features. Alternatively, MSN's Premium web service also features parental controls to help protect your kids online and you can use it with your existing ISP.
The advantage of this approach over standalone parental control software is that you don't have to worry about keeping the package updated, as this will be taken care of for you. You'll also get a lot of other features into the bargain.
We looked at the parental control elements of services from AOL, BT Yahoo and MSN to see how effectively they protect kids and how much flexibility and control they offer parents.
AOL 9.0
Setting up the AOL service is fairly straightforward. As with most of the products here, you need to set up a master account before you are able to create different accounts for each member of your family.
For each user, you must select an age range from the four options: 'Kids' for pre-teen youngsters, 'Young Teen' for kids aged 13 to 15, 'Mature Teen' for 16- to 17-year-olds and finally a general access option for users over the age of 18.
Once you've selected a category you can then further customise each account by fine-tuning access to email, instant messaging, chatrooms, newsgroups and websites.
There's also a tool called Guardian, which will send you email reports of your child's online activity, detailing information about chatrooms, the sites your child has tried to access and who they have emailed and received emails from.
You can also set specific times when your children are allowed to go online and it's possible to customise your kids' accounts so that they can only view emails from known senders whose details are already entered in their address book or buddy list.
This is one way of controlling who is able to contact your children, and is a very handy tool in case a child gives out their email address online.
You can block URLs and words you feel to be unsuitable, which are banished to a spam folder to which younger kids won't have access.
Meanwhile, the Web Unlock function lets you unblock previously blocked sites in case your child needs to access a website for a school project, for example.
Your kids can email you to request access to a specific website and you can access the service to unblock sites from any PC with an internet connection.
www.aol.co.uk
BT Yahoo
As with AOL, BT Yahoo offers integrated parental controls as part of its online package. Once you have created an account for yourself you can go on to set up accounts for other members of your household. It is at this stage that you can customise parental controls for each of your kids.
Identically to AOL, there are four access settings covering the same age ranges and, once you've selected an age bracket, you can customise each account further with web filtering and email and instant messaging controls.
Selecting subject matter that you want blocked or monitored is easy thanks to a simple box-ticking system.
Parents can manage settings, set times when their kids are allowed to go online, view reports on their kids' internet use and act on requests from the kids to access particular sites.
The great thing is that, like the AOL service, parents can access these controls from any online PC, which means you can look after your kids' needs even when you're away from home.
Although the controls cover all the necessary features for protecting your kids online, it just doesn't look as slick as the MSN service.
www.btyahoo.com
MSN Premium
The Premium service from MSN is a bundle of communication and security tools and content that includes parental control features. It can take a while to install but once you're signed in you can take a guided tour of the online MSN member centre.
The parental controls section allows you to create an account for each child, giving details such as names, ages and so on. An email account will be created for each user and there are step-by-step guides to help you through the process.
Again, the parental controls are organised into four age brackets: 'Young' is for age eight and under, 'Pre-teen' looks after nine-to 12-year-olds and 'Teen' is for ages 13 to 17.
There is also a general setting, which is fully customisable. The software gives you control over each child's web browsing, the files they can download, email and chat communication.
The instant blocking tool lets you add sites to the software's blacklist that you want kept off limits and you can opt to receive an activity report of your children's sessions online.
Like the AOL and BT Yahoo services, there is also a feature that lets kids email you to request to see a site, which MSN calls 'Over the shoulder'.
There's also plenty of information on offer about teaching your children to stay safe online, and the software looks great thanks to vibrant colours, easy to use menus and fun icons to guide you to various sections and tools.
www.msn.co.uk
SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
With the AOL and BT Yahoo services, internet access is included and if you don't want to change your ISP, or don't want all the added extras that are bundled with the MSN service, you might prefer to install dedicated parental control software on your PC.
There are plenty of packages to choose from which give you full control of the information and services your kids can access online and let you customise what content you think is appropriate for them to view.
CyberPatrol
The latest version of CyberPatrol's parental control software looks after every aspect of your child's online experience, helping to monitor their online activity without taking away the enjoyment.
The Headquarters section is where you take charge of all settings and features. There is no limit to the number of users you can set up on your PC and, once you've created user profiles and passwords, you can set a content filtering level for each child complete with a choice of graphics that will appear if they try to access a blocked site.
This is a great idea as the icons make it fun for younger kids to use. If your teenagers feel patronised by this, however, there is a stealth option that simply loads a 'page unavailable' message instead.
You can filter web pages by subject matter and keywords and keep an eye on instant messaging and newsgroup access. For each of these you can opt to either allow access, block access or filter access on a case-by-case basis.
The Chat Guard tool features a list of blocked words and phrases that you can add to or edit at any time.
The latest version also offers you the option of not only prescribing when your children can go online but setting time limits for how long your kids can use different online features, such as instant messaging.
CyberPatrol is a thorough and comprehensive application. Installation is easy and you have the choice of a 14-day trial before you commit to buying.
www.cyberpatrol.com
McAfee Parental Controls
The Parental Controls software from McAfee can either be purchased as part of the McAfee Internet Security suite or bought separately. If you're only installing Parental Controls, set-up is quick and easy, with step-by-step guides to help you along.
Once you have set up an administrator password, you can add additional users. The software recognises existing Windows login user names but you can add more as needed.
There are five settings to choose from to set up different users. Once you have chosen the right setting for your child, you can then customise each profile further.
Although the McAfee software doesn't have the extended features that CyberPatrol offers, you can still limit your child's internet access time, restrict access to certain applications and set up newsgroup and chat filtering to set restrictions based on certain words and content.
The software is easy to find your way around and will provide you with an activity log of who has been using your PC and which applications and websites have been accessed.
us.mcafee.com
Net Nanny Chat Monitor
Chat Monitor focuses specifically on chatrooms and instant messaging services and discreetly monitors and records any popular chat application on your PC. Its aim is to notify you if your child is involved in potentially risky conversations and allows you to limit the time they spend chatting online.
During installation, you're given the choice of placing a visible icon in your System Tray or setting up the software so that you can only access it using a keyboard button of your choice, based on whether you want your kids to know that you're monitoring them or not.
Most of the features are installed by default although there are optional settings for filtering using keywords, which will be blanked out on the screen using asterisks.
Rather than searching simply for crude language, the software focuses on phrases that are commonly used in chatrooms by paedophiles, although you can add other terms.
Although Chat Monitor looks slightly dated, it carries out its job well. However, for the same price CyberPatrol will protect kids during all online activity, not just in chatrooms.
www.netnanny.com
Norton Internet Security Suite 2004
Unlike the McAfee internet security suite, the parental controls feature within the Norton package cannot be purchased separately.
The Norton software will recognise existing Windows login information for the different users of your PC, though you also have the choice of setting up separate Norton accounts.
There are four account types to choose from, covering children, teenagers, adults and the administrator (the adult who sets up the software and controls the different accounts), although these categories are not as precise as those of the MSN or AOL services.
Parental controls are easy to use and cover websites, application usage and newsgroups that you can allow or block access to completely. Similar to BT Yahoo's process, it's a simple procedure involving check boxes.
You can add to the list of blocked sites at any time as well as block access to any application. Unlike CyberPatrol and Chat Monitor, you can't list banned words and phrases, which is a shame.
Also, the default settings are sometimes too cautious and strip out all your email attachments, so make sure you set the features to suit your own needs.
Similar to McAfee's suite, Norton has separate security, firewall, intrusion detection and antivirus tools to keep your entire family safe.
www.symantec.com
Playing it safe
Whether you're after an all-in-one internet services package or more specific software to protect your kids online, there are plenty of products to choose from.
All of the products and services we have looked at in this feature place a great deal of control in the hands of the parent, while offering plenty of flexibility to tailor the settings to your child's surfing needs. Ultimately, though, there's simply no substitute for adult supervision or educating your children about staying safe online.
Just browsing?
It is possible to use the settings in your browser to monitor your child's surfing habits, although this only gives you a pretty limited level of control. If you use Internet Explorer, go to the Tools menu and select Internet Options.
If you click on the Content tab and then on the Enable button in the Content Advisor box, you'll be presented with four categories: Language, Nudity, Sex and Violence.
Within each of these there are four rating levels you can set, ranging from 'none allowed' to 'full access'. To ensure that your kids don't try and override this and change these settings, you can protect them with a password.
Mozilla (www.mozilla.org) also allows you to list specific websites that you want blocked from your PC. Other web browsers should have similar settings to filter content but changing your browser settings only offers minimum protection and your kids can still get around this by simply installing a new web browser.
Superhighway patrol
Educating your kids about internet safety has become just as important as teaching them the green cross code and not to talk to strangers. However, the level of awareness is still worryingly low and, with this in mind, BT has launched Stop, Think and Stay Safe, an internet green cross code.
The code comes in the form of a digital leaflet, aimed at making kids aware of the issues surrounding safe web surfing. It is the first project of its kind to be endorsed by the Home Office and the Children's Charities Coalition in Internet Safety, whose members include The Children's Society, Barnado's, ChildLine, the NSPCC and the National Children's Bureau.
The animated leaflet will be distributed to parents, teachers and kids through schools, charities and the internet. If you want to get hold of a copy yourself you can download it here.
See also:
US households using web filtering to protect children online 22 Mar 2005
Keep the kids amused during the long summer holidays with some DIY entertainment. All you need is a computer and some sticky-backed plastic 22 Jul 2004All Online
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