I am asked all the time how to protect children from accessing or seeing stuff their parents would find objectionable.
- Deny access to your wireless network for your children. Make your child's access the Internet under your supervision. It is pretty easy to add a WPA or WEP key to your wireless network that a computer must have entered in order to access the Internet. Your wireless network should be WPA or WEP key enabled to protect your network anyway.
- Add parental control software that attempts to prevent access to undesirable features of the Internet. Software such as Net Nanny (www.netnanny) or SafeEyes (www.internetsafety.com) can be installed. Software as provided by High Speed Internet Providers such as ATT has been ineffective. The problem with a software solution is exceptions. A real life example is the blocking of access to your child's Christian prep school because by default sites with a religious content are blocked. Just imagine what happens when he or she start to research for their Sex Ed class. Bottom line: Be prepared to act as an administrator when these problems happen.
- Limit your child's access to the computer. The more free, unsupervised time they have to access the Internet, the most likelihood they will be exposed to things you do not wish them to see.
