The internet is a great resource for our children but it also presents a challenge for parents. Children can easily happen on explicit or dangerous content on the web, by accident or on purpose, or some mix of the two, as many parents have discovered to their chagrin. This applies to children of any age, as it turns out. Experts in the field of internet safety advise that parent take precautions with any computer that a child has access to, no matter how young. With the help of computer-savvy parents at Janney, below are steps that you can take to protect your child from exposure to inappropriate material. I strongly recommend that you consider following these steps now, because, it is always better to be safe than sorry!

The first step for computer security is to have separate user accounts for administrators, adults, and children (even parents should avoid using accounts with administrative privileges as a matter of course). Depending on your operating system, this is either a few clicks or
some additional downloads. Windows XP and Vista makes user account creation and the addition of parental controls very easy; Windows 7 may require you to download free add-ons (Window Live Family Safety) from microsoft.com to install web filters ("parental controls" for the web). Mac OS, Linux/Unix, and other systems require only slightly more work. In the simplest case, in Windows Vista and similar systems, create a new user (Start menu->Settings->Control panel->User accounts->Manage another account->Create a new account), set a password for that account (and all other accounts), and then set up parental controls with the highest level of web security for the kids account (only websites specifically geared toward children may be viewed). The medium level of security will attempt to filter out the most egregious content, but simple testing with Google searches reveals that the medium level fails to filter out some very explicit content.

Regardless of the level of security you install on your computer, talk to your children about the fact that you want them to be safe on the internet, that you can see what they do on the internet, and others may also see if they do not observe safe internet practices. You want to instill in your child the importance of following your computer safety rules at home, at school (the school has computer use guidelines) and when they are out of your home. If your child understands that you can help them with getting information that they may need or be interested in but that anything imaginable can be seen on the internet, including things that they may wish they had never seen, and no parent wants to find out the hard way that they cannot undo the harm done to their child once it has happened.