- Place your computer in an open-access area. Having the computer in sight reminds everyone in the family to be careful about the information they access. It also encourages you to sit down with your children and use the internet together. If you do not know a lot about computers or the internet, ask your children to teach you. They might enjoy the invitation to share their knowledge with you.
- Talk with your children about the internet. In a family home evening lesson or as the need arises, periodically discuss with your children how the internet can be used for good or evil. Help them to understand the importance of accessing only appropriate sites. It is important to resist not only pornography but also graphically violent material or anything else that is not wholesome. Realize too that in some cases hypertext links on an appropriate site could link to other sites with questionable material
As you talk with your children about appropriate Internet use, encourage the to be good examples to their friends. If they or their friends are accessing questionable information, your children need to feel confident that they can talk to you. Establish a relationship founded upon open communication
3. Bookmark child-friendly sites. Bookmarking is an easy-to use feature on your computer that allows you to mark sites you want to visit often. Marking a selection of appropriate site gives your children a food choice of places to visit when they use the internet. Once you have accessed a site you would like to mark, click on the word Bookmarks at the top of your screen, then select Add Bookmark.
4.) Teach your children to avoid giving out personal information. Establish some house rules about what personal information can and cannot be shared on the internet. For instance, one rule might be, "I will not give out my street or e-mail address or credit card numbers without parental approval." Discuss guidelines as a family.
5.) Check your browser history routinely. Most browsers maintain a history of Web sites visited recently. In some cases, you can press an arrow to the right of where you type an internet address to see a drop-down list of recently visited sites. Also pressing CTRL-H while your cursor is in the address box will generally show the history.
6.) Know the parents of your child's friends. Your children may use a computer at their friend's house our other places. Talk to the parents of your child's friends to find out if they have blocked inappropriate sites. Knowing the parents helps you become familiar with their family's entertainment standards.
7.) Ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about filtering methods to block inappropriate information before it gets to your home. Does the provider filter content? How extensively? If you're not satisfied with the filtering provided can you purchase and install filtering software?
8.) Share your learning with others. Talk to family and friends about what you and your family have discovered as you have searched the internet. Ask them how they have avoided inappropriate internet sites. What sites have proven to be especially beneficial?
The bottom line is -- There is no foolproof filtering technology. We need to have our own internal moral filters. --Eric L. Denna, president of the BYU 6th Stake and Information technology vice president at BYU
Other helpful suggestions:
- In Internet Explorer, go to internet options, contents, content advisor. Make sure that this feature is enabled.
- Do an internet search for Timeup a program to control time spent on the computer.
- Have family rules for using the PC such as times, content, etc...
Below is a great starting point!
Keeping Safe and Balanced in a Google-YouTube-Twitter-Facebook-iEverything World
By Jan Pinborough
No comments:
Post a Comment