August 25, 2008 at 10:23 am · Filed under Internet Service, Security

By Kelly Kilpatrick

The Internet is full of great resources, information and fun games for your kids to play. Unfortunately, it’s also home to sexual predators, cyberbullies and a plethora of content inappropriate for underage eyes to see. How can you protect your kids from these risks while still allowing them to enjoy the wealth of resources the Internet provides? We’ve collected 100 tips and tools that you can use to ensure that your kids can enjoy internet usage that’s safer and more secure so they can play games, learn and connect with friends without constant worry.

Tips
These tips offer some basic ways that you as a parent can help keep your child safe from the dangers lurking on the Internet.

1. Don’t put a computer with Internet access in your child’s room. Putting a computer with internet access in your child’s room, away from where you can see it, is asking for trouble. If you can’t see and monitor what your child is doing he or she is much more likely to get onto sites you don’t approve of. Place the computer in an area the whole family uses and where you can easily see and keep track of what your child is up to online.
2. Create a list of rules for Internet usage. Sometimes it can be helpful to lay out the expectations of your child’s internet use on paper. Ensure your child knows what is ok and what isn’t and if you can, post the list near your computer.
3. Make sure children know to never give out personal information. The Internet is rife with opportunities for personal information to become public knowledge. Ensure your children know not to give out any personal information while they’re online, including their name and address unless you’re there to approve.
4. Encourage stranger danger lessons online. While most kids are aware of stranger danger when it comes to talking to people they don’t know on the street, many may not realize that same lesson carries over to the online environment as well. Ensure your kids know not to talk to anyone they don’t know online, in email, IMs or otherwise.
5. Ask your child to create a list of the identities and emails of their friends. To make sure your kids are chatting and emailing safely, have them put together a list of emails and IM names that belong to their friends. This way you’ll know just who they’re talking to and if they’re chatting with someone unfamiliar to you.
6. Ensure that children understand the danger of meeting someone they met online.Internet predators are out there but you can help make sure your child won’t become a victim by explaining to them to real dangers of meeting someone in person that they only know online.
7. Set time limits on Internet usage. Don’t let your child spend all day or night online. Set time limits for how long they’re allowed to use the Internet and make sure they stick to them.
8. Monitor your child’s browsing habits. Whether you sit by your child while he or she is on the internet, check the browser history or employ a tracking program, make sure you’re watching what your child is looking at on the internet to make sure they’re not seeing anything inappropriate or dangerous.
9. Filter out inappropriate content. There are a number of ways you can filter out what your kids are looking at on the net. You can employ a prefiltered ISP, adjust browser settings or even install a program designed just to limit access to sites that are of questionable content for kids.
10. Increase your security and privacy settings. Ensure that your computer is as protected as it can be from outside intruders and unwanted SPAM, malware and even pop-up ads to keep inappropriate material from making its way to your kids.
11. Limit access by age. Remember that there isn’t a one size fits all rule when it comes to kids and the internet. Younger kids will require more limitations and should be allowed to use email or social networking sites without supervision. As kids get older, loosen up the reins a little while still ensuring that your teens are staying out of trouble.
12. Find and monitor your child’s social networking profiles. You’ve no doubt seen the news reports exposing the potential dangers of social networking sites like MySpace. This shouldn’t mean that your child can’t use them at all, after all, they are a great way to keep in touch with friends. Just make sure you regularly check up on their profile to make sure nothing suspicious is going on.
13. Respect privacy. While monitoring what your kids are doing is important, it’s also important to give them a certain measure of privacy. If they’ve never given you a reason not to trust them then don’t read all their e-mails or go through their files.
14. Maintain trust. Make sure that you don’t cross the line with your kids and make them feel as though you don’t trust them. Give them the knowledge and skills to make good decisions online instead of constantly looking over their shoulders.
15. Use the Web together. With younger kids, it may be a fun and safe idea to look at websites and play games on the internet together rather than setting your kids free on their own.
16. Make sure photos stay private. These days it’s easy to take and upload pictures of pretty much anything. Make sure your kids are using photo albums and sites that are only accessible by friends and family.
17. Have your children sign an Internet use contract. Lay down the rules of internet use in your household in contract form. Have your kids sign it and have clear consequences if they violate the contract.
18. Learn about the Internet. It’s hard for parents to protect their kids from the dangers that lurk on the Internet if they know nothing about technology or how to use the net. Educate yourself on the latest technology, websites, trends on the internet and more so you’ll be savvy enough to talk to your kids about it.

Web Resources
Check out these sites to get information and advice on creating safe internet access for your child.

1. Safe Kids: Here you can find a forum, loads of safety tips, news and more all dedicated to educate you on keeping your kids safe online.
2. ProtectKids.com: Learn about issues like internet dangers, empowering parents, safety tools and how you can report a cyber crime on this site.
3. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: While you hopefully won’t need to use this site for a missing child, you can reference it for tips and advice on keeping your child safe from internet predators.
4. OnGuard Online: This government sponsored site provides a home to loads of practical tips to help you protect your identity, monitor fraud and create a safe internet environment for your children.
5. SafeTeens: Check out this site for tips, advice and news on keeping your teens safe while they look at the Internet. You’ll also have access to a forum where you can chat with other parents.
6. KidzPrivacy: This kid friendly site is full of articles and suggestions that can help parents, teachers and even kids themselves use the internet in a safe and secure manner.
7. Safe Surfin’: This foundation works to educate the public on Internet crimes against children and suggest ways that communities can protect their children.
8. Family Guide Book: If you’re trying to explain the dangers of the Internet to your children, check out this guide. It’s kid friendly and provides information for kids, teens, parents and teachers.
9. KidsCom Internet Safety Game: Kids can learn how to use the Internet safely in a fun and imaginative way with this online game.
10. Help Delete Online Predators: Learn about the dangers of online predators and what you can do to protect your kids on this Ad Council sponsored site.

Articles
From tips to advice, these articles provide a range of information on internet usage and kids.

1. FBI Safety Tips for Kids on the Internet: The FBI has put together this list of tips that are designed to alert parents and kids to the dangers that could be lurking on the Internet.
2. Internet Safety Tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: The NCMEC wants to help prevent children from being the victims of sexual crimes or kidnapping and provides these tips to keep your kids away from online predators.
3. Improve Your Family’s Web Security in 4 Steps: Make sure your family computer is a safe and secure environment by double checking these tips provided by Microsoft.
4. How to Protect Your Children on the Internet: 20 Tips: These 20 tips can provide a great place to get inspiration on how you can take measures to ensure your children aren’t getting into trouble on the net.
5. Online Family E-ssentials: The National Consumers League has put together this guide to help you go through and determine if your computer is set up for secure family online usage.
6. 14 Tips to Protect Your Kids Online: Blogger Ronit Baras gives her advice on ways you can work to ensure your kids aren’t being taken advantage of while they’re online.
7. Keeping Kids Safe on Social Sites: The news is full of reports of the dangers of MySpace and Facebook. Learn how your kids can use these sites while still staying safe with some help from this article.
8. 10 Ways to Protect Your Children from CyberBullies: Cyberbullying has become an increasingly large problem as more and more children use computers on a daily basis. Learn how you can keep online bullies away from your child with these tips.
9. CyberAngels: This Guardian Angels program aims to help keep children and adults safe from predators and bullies online. Check out their site for resources, articles and more.
10. The Dangers of Chat and Instant Messaging: Online chat and instant messaging can be harmless and fun activities for children and teens. Unfortunately, they can also be dangerous activities if not monitored and you can learn about these risks from this article.
11. Protecting Your Children from Online Predators: Predators can use the online forum for a quick and easy way to gain access to children and build their trust. Learn how to keep these criminals away from your kids by reading this article and implementing preventative measures.
12. Living With Technology: Keep Your Kids Safe Online: Technology is a great asset but unfortunately it comes with some drawbacks as well. This article can help you more effectively use technology while keeping your kids safe at the same time.
13. Teaching Kids to Be Safe Online: You can’t always be looking over your kids’ shoulders when they’re online so make sure they know right from wrong when it comes to online behavior.
14. Kids Don’t Tell Parents the Truth About Online Activities: Check out this article to find out how teens and kids deceive their parents about what they do on the net and what you can do about it.
15. Teens & Mobile Phone Use:  All teens are connected by their mobile phones, see how the number of teens with phones and how they use them has changed.

Organizations
These organizations are dedicated to helping keep your kids safe from internet predators, privacy invaders and cyberbullies.

1. WiredSafety.org: WiredSafety “provides help, information and education to Internet and mobile device users of all ages.” This site is especially geared towards the prevention of cyber attacks and providing help for victims.
2. Surf Net Parents: Here you’ll find suggestions for sites that are safe to look at with your kids, advice on keeping kids safe online, and more.
3. The NetSmartz Workshop: This site provide resources for both parents and kids on how to use the Internet safely and responsibly.
4. GetNetWise: The goal of this site is to ensure that net users enjoy a safe and constructive online experience. It provides resources on everything from protecting your kids online to stopping unwanted email.
5. Kidz Privacy: Make sure your child’s information isn’t getting out onto the web with the resources and guidance from this site.
6. WebWiseKids: This organization aims to empower today’s youth to make educated and responsible choices about internet usage. It uses fun, interactive games to do this and provides resources for both kids and parents.
7. StopCyberBullying: Dedicated to eliminating the problem of cyberbullies, this organization provides a host of resources and information.
8. Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use: Parents, librarians, and educators can access this site to learn about ways they can educate and provide guidance to children to promote safe and responsible internet use.
9. iSafe.org: This organization bills itself as the worldwide leader in internet safety education. It’s part of a non-profit foundation dedicated to empowering students and parents to make the Internet a safer place.

Parental Control Apps
Take control over what your kids are looking at on the Internet by installing one of these helpful parental control programs. (editor’s note – some of these have a pricetag)

1. Net Nanny: Get a 14-day free trial of this software that allows you to easily monitor and control your child’s internet usage.
2. Free Shield: Protects young ears from the radiation of cell phones.
3. Parental Control Bar: This free program allows parents to easily block sites that can show children questionable content.
4. Crawler Parental Control: Don’t just control your child’s Web access. This program allows you to control what games and applications they can use as well.
5. K9 Web Protection: Filter and control the content your child has access to over the Internet by using this helpful free tool.
6. Golden Eye: Much like the James Bond movie of the same name, this tool is all about spying. Parents can monitor and filter the content children have access to and best of all it’s free to use.
7. Free Parental Control: This program makes it easy to remove adult images, cookies and caches from your computer so it’s safe for kids to use.
8. KGB Spy: For parents who want to take their spying one step further, there’s this tool. It logs the keystrokes your child makes so you can access his or her accounts.
9. ChatShield: Keep creeps and predators away from your child’s instant messenger with this helpful tool.
10. ContentPurity: Make sure your computer is free from inappropriate content by installing and using this directory cleaning tool.
11. Cyber Patrol: With Cyber Patrol you can filter and block websites, monitor internet use, and protect against inappropriate activity.
12. Surf Watch: This tool allows you to filter out questionable content including sites on pornography, gambling, violence, hate speech, and drugs.
13. CyberSitter: Check out CyberSitter for an easy way to monitor and control what your kids have access to on the Web.
14. Safe Surf: This isn’t a parental control tool per se, but it does provide a home base for an site rating standard that can let you know what content is safe for your kids and what they should avoid.
15. Safe Eyes: Install this program on your computer to easily filter and control what and when your kids can look at online content.

Prefiltered ISPs
These ISPs filter out content before it ever reaches your house, making it easier to keep unwanted images and information away from immature and impressionable eyes.

1. Crossway Christian ISP: Those of the Christian faith can take advantage of this ISP which filters out a lot of content before it reaches your home. Some families may not agree with its filtering as it supports more traditional values and excludes content on homosexuality and feminism.
2. MayberryUSA: Filtering from this ISP cannot be turned off and provides protection for a variety of questionable sites as well as spam an unsolicited emails.
3. SurfSafely: This dial up service provides a prefiltered connection that will prevent your kids from accessing any inappropriate sites.
4. SurfOntheSafeSide: You’ll get access to pre-paid filtered internet access with this company.
5. pkFamily: Put out by Promise Keepers, this filtered internet access is designed to filter out the R and X-rated content on the internet.
6. PEF Internet: With this filtered internet provider you can block access to certain sites or by category.

Kid-Safe Browsers and Playgrounds
These browsers provide a way for parents to create an internet playground for their children where content is limited to just what’s deemed child-safe. (editor’s note – someo of these have a pricetag)

1. Magic Desktop: Create a safe and fun learning environment right on your computer with this program. It contains a special desktop and browser that limits what your kids can access.
2. Zeeks.com: This site is full of games, chat, videos and more that are all kid friendly and safe to use.
3. Disney’s Club Blast: Kids will love this Disney site which is loaded with games, music, videos and more that is all kid-friendly.
4. JuniorNet: This online service provides access to games, stories and puzzles that encourage kids to learn and explore.
5. KidRocket: KidRocket is a browser designed just for kids. It blocks out all web content except sites you deem to be ok.
6. MyWeb: Designed to suit the needs of kids, this animated browser allows parents to restrict access to all but kid friendly sites.
7. KidZui: This free download allows kids access to over 800,000 sites which have all been approved by teachersand parents for clean, safe content.
8. Peanut Butter PC: This desktop application will only launch kid-friendly programs making it easy to control what your kids use and see.
9. NoodleNet: NoodleNet creates a safe desktop and online environment so parents can feel secure in letting their kids explore and learn online.
10. Hoopah Kidview: This program makes it easier for parents to let their children use the Internet by creating a secure environment for internet and desktop usage. Also available in the Netherlands and India.
11. Crayon Crawler: This complete internet browser and community suite so children can securely send email, chat, play games and use the internet.

Activity and Time Trackers
Keep an eye on what your kids are looking at and how much time they’re looking at it with these helpful tools. (editor’s note – these all have a pricetag)

1. WinWhatWhere: This program provides everything from keystroke logging to internet activity tracking to ensure your kids aren’t doing anything they shouldn’t be on the computer.
2. Addict: Keep track of the time your kids spend on the Internet with this tool.
3. PC Tattletale: Monitor incoming and outbound emails, chat conversations and visited sites by installing this stealthy monitoring software.
4. SnoopStick: Just plug this USB device into your child’s computer and it will install software that will allow you to monitor what they’re doing at all times.
5. User Tracker: With this tool you can track the amount of time your child is spending on the computer and what they’ve been doing while they’re on there.
6. Kids PC Time Administrator: Put limits on the amount of time your ids are allowed to use the computer by using this application, designed to set time limits and schedules for computer use.
7. eBlaster Spy Software: Capture inbound and outbound emails, IMs and browsing habits by using this spying tool.

Kids Search Engines
Let your kids surf the net in relative safety with these kid-friendly search engines.

1. Yahooligans: Kids can visit this site to search through Yahoo, get access to games, music, jokes, ecards and more.
2. Ask for Kids: The popular search engine Ask provides this kid-friendly version that will only search through sites designed to educate and entertain kids.
3. CyberSleuth Kids: Check out this site with your kids to find information on hundreds of educational topics.
4. KidsClick: Librarians have put together this site which allows kids to search through sites on everything from the supernatural to geography.
5. Berit’s Best Sites: This site provides a list of safe, recommended websites that are approved for children.
6. KOL: Let your kids enjoy searching and browsing through this AOL kids site.
7. Animal Search: For kids who love animals, this site can be a great search point for finding information.