Parental Controls

I heard a sad story the other day.  It seems there was this woman living in my friend’s neighborhood.  She was always in a hurry and she was careless about safety.  

She would drive through the neighborhood on her way to and from work at speeds that were just not safe for the children playing in the area.  In this neighborhood it was common to see people strolling down the street or walking their dogs after work, and she would blast around the curves at 40 mph or more.  Everyone was concerned about her behavior.  

Of course the inevitable happened, but as it turned out the dog she ran over was her own. You see she didn’t have time to walk her dog, so she just let it run loose in the neighborhood.  

The story made me think about how busy people are and how they sometimes allow themselves to overlook the obvious things they should be careful about.  

Let me ask you, do you have high speed internet?  Do you have children? 

Are you allowing your children to “roam” the internet unsupervised?  What are you doing to protect them from those that would do them harm?  

The news is always talking about someone that has been harmed via the internet, and the stories are even sadder when the injury happens to children.  

If you don’t have time, don't know how, or feel awkward about looking over your child’s shoulder while they are on the internet there are software solutions available to help you protect them.  

GetNetWise.org has a selection of tools that can limit the time a child spends on the internet, block sexually explicit images, monitor messenger chat, and even monitor all computer usage.  

Windows Vista has some built in software, but you shouldn’t be afraid to spend a few dollars to make your computer safer for your kids.

One tool we’ve used to help our customers is from SpecterSoft.  The company offers reliable, undetectable monitoring as well as a logging program that can email you a detailed report of what they’ve done on the internet.  There are several more tools listed on the GetNetWise site.  

It isn’t a lack of trust we are talking about here, it is protection, plain and simple.  The internet is available to everyone in the WORLD, and there are some really bad people out there.

~Steve