It is important to explain to children what these dangers are. Downloading malware (viruses, spyware) can cause a lot of damage, and lost time, if your computer is infected. It's easy to explain these dangers to kids - but a lot harder to explain what they should watch out for. It's safe to advise children to avoid colourful and tantalising advertisements, and things offered for free. Explain to children that they must not answer "yes" to any questions (to install or download) without asking adults first. Any program that installs itself (an ‘executable'), particularly from a "colourful" site is likely to be some sort of malware.
Apart from making sure the children understand, there is no excuse not to have an anti-virus programme installed on your computer! It may be an extra cost, but it is an essential component for any internet-connected computer. Make sure you have some sort of anti-virus programme installed - and remember that some are better than others. Don't hesitate to change your anti-virus programme if you're not happy with it.
May computer owners forget to renew their maintenance for the anti-virus programme. This is a false sense of security, whilst your anti-virus may be working, if its not up to date, your computer will be vulnerable to any new viruses which are released (and this can be up to 15,000 per week!).
Protecting your Children
The Australian Government has been very proactive in providing information to children, schools and the community about the dangers on the Internet. They have published the site www.netalert.gov.au which provides a great deal of very useful information.
Probably the most beneficial aspect of the NetAlert website is the availability of free Internet filters, especially designed to protect children (yes, I know, this is one exception to the rule about FREE downloadable executables, it should be safe!!).
In order to give opportunities to a number of vendors, the Government has paid for three different Internet filter programmes - and parents can choose to install whichever one suits best. There is a comparison table to help you choose.
Internet filters are a great helper for parents. It's virtually impossible to be monitoring children for every minute that they are on the Internet, especially in today's age of working parents with busy lives. However, these Internet filters once installed, will block inappropriate web sites from the eyes of children.
One of the three choices, "Filterpak", allows a password override so that adults can also use the same computer, but not have the same level of filtering. Up to three computers per household can have Filterpak installed, and you can also have multiple registered users each with their own security level. This is ideal when a household includes children and young adults at various ages.
Teaching your Children
Young children often don't understand the dangers of giving out personal information over the Internet. They sign up to websites and freely give information like their names, addresses, ages, parent's names etc.
Every parent and guardian should take the time to sit down and explain all the possible dangers that a child may encounter whilst they use the Internet. For instance, I don't have any problems advising my children to use pseudonyms and false addresses if prompted for certain sites - I can't think of any reason they should reveal their real identity.
But enough of the downsides of the Internet! There are so many benefits to children and parents. Rather than letting your children surf alone, we can encourage their use of ‘good sites'. How about www.dictionary.com, www.nick.com, www.cybersmartkids.com.au, and www.abc.net.au/children ?
There are even social networking sites suited to children, imbee.com, myspace.com, bebo.com and others.
And the benefits go on: research materials for assignments, school research, job research, university comparisons, general knowledge, recipes, history, access to museum and library materials, etc.
Of course, children at different ages require different levels of guidance and control. Their parents' need to exercise a level of guidance that is in line with their own acceptable limits.
There is no doubt that the children of today are Internet experts. With lots of time online, and discussions with their friends, can often help them get around any restrictions parents' may try to impose on them. I'm not sure it's totally possible to control what the children do with their Internet experience. Tools like FilterPak and other Internet filters certainly help, but just like in the ‘real world', children need to be guided and educated to make the right decisions. There is no difference. The Internet IS the Real World now.
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