Parents Guide to the Internet: And How to Protect Your Children in Cyberspace - Softcover

Aftab, Parry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0966049101 ISBN 13: 9780966049107

Publisher: Sc Pr Inc, 1997

About this title

From the Author:

What Are Other Parents Doing?...and excerpt from the book...
What Are Other Parents Doing?

At the end of 1996, FamilyPC magazine conducted a survey of almost 600 families. On the average the persons surveyed were married couples in their late 30's with two children under the age of seventeen. They used Windows 95 on a Pentium PC, with a 28.8 kbps modem, and Netscape Navigator as their web browser.

The parents surveyed were very concerned about their children's online activities. Most parents didn't allow their children to use chatrooms online; a smaller percentage monitored their children's e-mail. Yet, only a quarter of them used child protection software (incidentally, they reported that ease of use and setup is an important factor in selecting such software). All of the families however, set rules for Internet use in the home. ["Families in the World of the Web, Results to our first Family WebTesters Tell All survey help us get to know you." FamilyPC, December 1996]

Most of the Internet-savvy parents I know don't use child protection software either, tending to rely instead on education and trust. Representative Zoe Lufgren, one of the most Internet-savvy members of Congress, is a good example. She says she doesn't use it for her 12 and 15 year old children because she trusts them to follow the rules and communicate concerns to her.

But the inadvertent accessing of offensive sites may be a good reason for using child protection software to catch the sites before your kids do. Your child may be searching for Seventeen Magazine's website at the obvious name, ; Seventeen Magazine doesn't currently have a website, just a forum on AOL (keyword "seventeen"). But the obvious name leads to a hardcore sexual site.

Representative Lufgren shared a similar story with me about a search conducted by one of her congressional staff on the subject of volcanos. He searched for "eruptions" and found far more than he intended. Child protection software, although certainly not perfect, can avoid a similar problem in your home.

About this edition

• Publisher: Sc Pr Inc
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0966049101
• ISBN 13: 9780966049107
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328