Child Security Online - How To Handle It Successfully Child security online is becoming a serious issue. Most children use the internet to socialize with friends and pursue budding interests. They manage to steer clear of the dangerous predators lurking in chat rooms and other forums who slyly manipulate their way into electronic networks of school-age friends to find and groom the next vulnerable child for future exploitation. While most children are safe on the internet, as you read these words some are in danger. Is your child one of these unfortunate few? How would you know before it is too late? Characteristics of typical victims: 1. Most but not all victims are between the age of 12 and 15 years old. 2. Most victims have an instant message account (most kids do) but have not set up privacy or security settings to block strangers and, in fact, willingly engage in conversations with strangers. 3. Most victims tend to live in suburban or rural towns. 4. Most victims are very sheltered and naïve, although a few are at the opposite extreme and willing to take very serious risks. 5. Most victims tend to be loners with few offline friends. They are often looking for love and affection online. Many children contacted by predators believe they are communicating with someone around their own age, and not with an adult. 6. Most victims tend to spend more than 90 minutes of non-homework time a day online, and are secretive about their internet activities. When you walk by, the screen often goes blank or windows are minimized. 7. Most victims tend to have few activities outside of the internet. Just because your child matches one or more of these characteristics does not mean they are being targeted by predators, nor is your child perfectly safe if they match none of these characteristics. In all circumstances, a parent should be ever vigilant and involved in their children's on-line activities. Keeping Your Child Safe Few of us want to dwell on the subject of child abuse. But it is a very real and unfortunate fact of life in today's world. The effects on Children can be devastating, and have a lifelong negative effect. As a parent what would you be willing to do to insure your child's safety? Learning about threats to your children and how to deal with them is not enough, you need to provide for their safety. There are two types of programs that will satisfy different needs, both are effective and approach the problem differently. Key loggers Software like "I am Big Brother" is key logging software, it will record every key stroke entered on the subject computer, and you can see what has been typed including both sides of an instant messaging chat session, what web sites were visited, any emails sent or received, what programs were used, and pretty much anything else that has happened on that computer. One huge advantage of this type of software is that it is completely invisible to the user, you know it's there but the person using the computer does not, (this is also useful if you suspect your spouse is having an online or offline affair) installation is simple, and generally will install itself.
Blocking Software Blocking software is just that, it keeps undesirable websites from showing up. it has a built in list of restricted sites that is updated frequently (often everyday) and blocks sites based on other criteria such as hate speech etc. this type of software is best suited to younger individuals as its presence is obvious, and will sometimes but not often block access to completely safe sites. For more information, you may visit: http://tinyurl.com/lqhzpz