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Inappropriate Material
Just as in any city, there are areas in cyberspace that are not necessarily appropriate for children or teens. Just what those places are depends on the child, the family, and the community, but these typically include sites which are sexual in nature, which contain violent or hateful material, or which advocate the use of weapons or harmful substances such as alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs.
Options (not necessarily recommendations) for preventing your child from being exposed to inappropriate material include:
- Set rules about where kids can go online and what to do if they stumble upon inappropriate sites.
- Keep any connected computer in a public area of the house (not a child's bedroom), and make sure that other family members walk in the room periodically.
- Consider not allowing children and teens to use the Internet if parents aren't home. You may wish to consider using time-limiting software to make sure that kids can go online only when you're around.
- Consider checking the browser history to see where kids have been and having a "talk" if they are visiting inappropriate sites.
- Consider installing monitoring software that tracks where kids have been.
- Consider installing filtering software that blocks kids from visiting sites that you feel are in appropriate.
