A web filter, as the name suggests protects your PC from the worst of the web. Internet pornography is never far from the headlines and Sky recently announced their customers will have a family friendly filter set as default, Customers will have to ‘opt-in’ to be able to access adult material.
However, the onus is very much on the parents to protect their children from the dark side of the Internet yet many of us don’t really feel we understand computers well enough to know how to go about install filters to prevent exposing our children from inappropriate content.
There are a plethora of filter programs and there is a basic filter built into Windows 7 and 8. (Accessible through Control Panel Parental Controls). However you may want to add an extra layer of protection. Some of these programs incur a charge but fortunately one of the best ones is free.
In our household (with an 11 and 9 year old) we use the free version of Norton Family. http://tinyurl.com/Puter-filter Sign up and download the program to each computer in your home. You set each child up as a user and set restrictions for each. This can be done by age, and can be tweaked. It will also block other salubrious content such as sites about anorexia, self-harm and gambling.
If the child go to a blocked site, a friendly warning message comes up where they can send a request to you (via email) to unblock the site if they think it is indeed appropriate. You can also get a seven day report of activity to see what they have been surfing.
Tablets and phones can also be filtered. Apple products have parental controls under “restrictions” in settings.
If you would like help and advice about protecting your children online then feel free to call me and arrange an appointment to put your mind and rest.
