Childrens Internet protection

Hi Guys this is a question for all you parents out there, I am looking for a content protection program to safe guard a 9 year old girl on the internet, she has a limited account on her parents machine, is there also a web based email suitable for children she has joined a forum (about horses) using a hotmail account and already she is having viagra and enlargement spam
any sugestions?

 

Thanx blackcurrent man, I like the Opera email (might even sign up myself)
Do you Have any pref for the others?
I am leaning towards cybersitter or the child safety software on first reading

 

The only sure method is an actively present parent when she is surfing the 'net. Nothing else will do the trick unfortunately because as soon as the "protection" software is updated, the sites you want her protected from will adapt to circumvent those protections (or at least the less reputable ones will). If I may make a few suggestions:

1. Place her system in a publicly viewed place in the home. Preferably one that has quite a bit of traffic so it does not seem as if you are purposely spying on her activities (which you actually are )

2. Go ahead and place one of the many protection software packages on her system. Just remember that they are not perfect and will allow a certain amount of unwanted content through.

3. Either place a keylogger onto your system or learn where and how your particular operating system stores content and history logs so you can find out where she has been and what she has been doing.

4. Spend some "quality time" with her on the Internet and be certain to talk to her about privacy issues and the dangers of giving out personal information to people she does not know.

5. Limit her usage of "chat" programs such as ICQ, MSN, AIM, and Yahoo. If she has to use any of those please try something that has a logging feature so you can keep track of her conversations to help keep her out of trouble.

6. Teach her that when it comes to being online and chatting that it is a priviledge and NOT a right. Too many children feel that it is their right to get online and chat with people whom they don't know and may in fact be a danger to them.

You may think that I am overboard on a few of these issues. Some people have expressed to me that I am too paranoid on privacy issues on the Internet but I've been on the 'net since the early '90's and have seen many instances of violations of privacy. One thing that has to be understood by all people who venture onto the 'net is merely the FACT that nothing is private. Everything is available to the right person who has the tools to view them.

I know that this reply does not have a lot of helpful links and such. I won't do that as I personally go through my children's systems the old fashion way (through manual viewing of those areas that log their travels and other methods I won't describe here in the off chance that they themselves may view it). I will however, let you know that many of the online email servers offer spam blockers that work fairly well if you keep up on them and as far as messenger programs are concerned Trillian has a good package that logs chat content.

I hope that this will help somewhat. If I can be of further assistance please feel free to contact me in any of the usual ways.

 

thanx Guys
@ Halo,
I ment prefs about the protection software, but have decided to try the child safety software thanx for putting me on track.
@Wraith,
Some interesting points, the girl is my cousins daughter, (my goddaughter)
He is a lorry driver based in the UK but working all over Continental Europe and is often away for 10-20 days at a time,
the kindest way to describe her mother is blond, so it looks like the ball is in my court.

Paranoia = Advanced Awareness imho

That means us as well right? So any miscrients could be tracked down?

thanxs again
H

 

Yes, in theory it is possible to track down the miscreants IP and other public information. However, unless you are able to provide evidence of foul play it will do you little good to know the IP and provider information for said person. Also you would most likely have to deal with learning how to go through the various proxies that a person who is learned in the "underworld" of the Internet can and will utilize to spoof various detection software that is available to the "average joe" out there. If you do indeed find yourself in a perilous situation with either a person who is endangering a child or a person who is running one of the many scams out there I would suggest that you contact the proper authorities in your area being certain to include as much "evidence" as is possible.

Please understand that this history can and will be the first thing that a child who wishes to hide their comings and goings on the 'net will erase. On some browsers such as Avant it is easier as there are tools that help to erase the history files. However, there are other ways to find the history that is NOT deleted. I'm not certain if it should be discussed at length in this forum or not. You should be able to find the information if you google it.

Hopefully this will continue to help you learn more about how to protect your children and yourself while on the internet.

 

This aspect hadn't crossed my mind, I was concentrating on outside influences,
I don't think she is computer literate enough at the moment, but it is certanly something to keep in mind for the future

thank you both again
H

 

Sometimes having teenagers is a learning experience.

Hopefully you won't have to learn as much as I did.