Today Long Island

Today, it’s more likely that your kids would rather chat with their friends online than talk to them in person. The digital era is upon us, and upon our kids. It’s no longer the way it was when we were all kids; playing sports or hide-and-seek until dusk when your parents called you inside; or spending endless hours basking in the summer sun.

Years ago, our parents used to tell us about the “telltale signs” of a dangerous person and what situations we needed to be aware of. You remember – “Don’t talk to strangers”, “Don’t take candy from strangers”, “Don’t get in the car with anyone”, etc... Ahh, those were the days - a handful of things to watch out for in regards to your children’s safety. Such is certainly not the case today. Today we have hundreds of thousands of threats that face our children on a daily basis; and the thing is we are not always there to witness it, nor are we sufficiently able to warn our kids of the dangers ahead, or prevent it from occurring.

With that being said, I am specifically talking about the internet. The Internet has billions of people on it, from all over the world, from all kinds of cultures and in all different styles of life. The Internet is a great resource for many things; however the other side of that is, it’s a great resource for bad people as well. There are sexual predators of course – but there is also quite a lot of inappropriate content that we want to shield our children from. So, you may think, “How can these terrible online people get to my child?” Sadly, It is much simpler than a physical kidnapping, or other physical means of harming our children. You see, in a real world, physical scenario, a potential attacker would have to convince your child face to face to go with them, and these days that would be hard to do, especially since most parents these days don’t let their kids out of their sight. But what if a predator had a way of getting your child to warm up to them, make them feel comfortable, comfortable enough to go with them if they asked? The answer is simple; there is a way, and it’s called the Internet!

Social media such as AOL, Myspace.com, Facebook.com, Youtube.com, Twitter.com and many, many others are breeding grounds for all types of really bad behavior and they attract the really bad people who use them as a tool to get to our children. While their intent was not to house bad people, despite their best efforts in defending our children from these people, an increasing amount of them still seem to sneak past the radar and slip into our homes, and into the direct contact with our children.

It’s much easier than you think, and these new tech savvy digital predators have all of the techno-skills to convince our children that they mean no harm, and it is a great idea to meet up with them - in person. Sounds very scary right? Almost makes you want to unplug the computer and toss it, or sit over their shoulder and watch every move they make, right? Well sadly we can’t be there every single second of every single day, or can we?

We can! There is some software out there that can watch your kid’s activities online, and do a better job of it then you can! Here are some steps you can take to protect your children from the harm of online predators.

Let’s start out with some simple steps:

1. Password protect your computer: Create a strong password, which is nothing common. DO NOT use anyone’s birthday, any pet’s name, or anything that the kids (or anyone) can figure out easily. Make it unique, randomize it with numbers, letters, upper and lower case letters, things like that. And don’t write it down and put it where they’ll find it (sort of defeats the purpose.)
2. Give your kids their own account on the computer, and make it a VERY limited account. This will ensure that they can’t install programs that may harm them, and they also can’t change or uninstall programs that already exist, like the monitoring software we will be discussing shortly. Also, password protect their account with a very unique password too, and do not give it to them, this way they can only logon when you put the password in for them. (For kids a little older you can let them log into their own accounts, but they shouldn’t be able to get on the web unless you authorize the session)
3. Disable internet access on their cell phones. Many social sites offer special access via cell phones. Call up the provider, and ask them to disable this service. You may also ask to disable text messaging (SMS).
4. Install Monitoring software; below is a short list of reliable software that you can use...

Web watcher 2008 - Record anything that happens on the users’ computer and see it online from another computer or internet connection. Web watcher is unlike any other recording software as it is easily accessible from any computer at any time from anywhere in the world. It has an easy to use interface that gives you the option to filter the recorded information by date. Web watcher records email, chats, IM's, keystrokes, websites and screenshots. Price: about $95.00

Sentry Parental Controls - You can track every instant message (IM) conversation, every website visited and every application used. You can also control the amount of time your child can use the computer and how long he can stay connected to the Internet. Price: about $29.95

Safe Eyes – Safe Eyes is a filtering software, which allows you to customize the content that you want to filter based on categories. It works with multiple users and you can individualize what each user can access. Price: about $49.95

PC Tattletale – Gives you the ability to record Myspace, chat room and instant message activity. You can record all keystrokes typed, emails both sent and received, software programs accessed. You can set it to make screenshots at intervals. And you can have the ability to block and filter inappropriate content on the Internet. Price: about $49.95

Spector Pro 6 – You can record absolutely everything the users do online including chats, emails both sent and received, screenshots, web searches, file transfers, user names and passwords and also offline activity such as programs accessed, word documents and restrict access to websites and chat programs. Price: about $99.95

Protecting our kids is one of the most important things we can do for them in the world, and taking these simple steps can at least get you on track to find out what the kids are up to online, and protect their innocent nature from harmful people and predators. We hope that you have enjoyed this article, and that you have learned something from it.