The OneMinute Geek:

The Internet and Kids

The Problem:

The Internet is a modern version of the "Wild, Wild, West". Shysters and evil-doers inhabit the virtual world in seemingly ever-growing numbers. Rightly used, the Internet is a wonderful tool for youngsters. It offers limitless opportunities for communication, entertainment, and education. Unfortunately, it's up to you to be sure exactly who your kids are communicating with, what they are finding for online entertainment, and how they're being educated in the process.

The Solution:

If you want to limit the who, what and how of your kids Internet experiences, the most important thing you have to limit is the where--where are they surfing. A straightforward approach is to make sure online time isn't private. Keep your child's computer in a public place in the house so anyone can see what's on the screen at anytime. Show an interest in their surfing. You ask questions when your child goes out to play with friends, ask the same kinds of questions when your child has been on the Internet.

In addition, you can take two basic approaches to keeping your children out of trouble on the Internet--track where they are surfing or limit where they can surf. The first approach is responsive--check out what they're doing and then act; the second is pro-active--structure their computing environment to control what they can access in the first place. (Kids will say the first is invasive and the second is smothering.)

If you want to find out what your kids are doing online, you can use either software (www.spectorsoft.com) or hardware (www.keylogger.com) designed to secretly track a computer user's every move. Your kids are likely to regard this as invasive surveillance. Actually it is. For example, you can use SpectorSoft's eBlaster 3.0 to forward a copy of your child's email -- incoming and outgoing--to you in real time. You will get immediate reports of chats, instant messages, websites visited and keystrokes typed. You will probably also get a very annoyed kid.

A more subtle measure is to restrict access to certain web sites. NetNanny (www.NetNanny.com) consistently receives good reviews. Such software is useful but never 100% effective. At a minimum, you should consider using spam-filtering software since a lot of spam includes explicit language and explicit pictures. ChoiceMail (www.digiportal.com) has a unique approach to filtering that does eliminate most spam.

Of course, it seems as though some spam always gets through. One concerned parent, an experienced net-user himself, addressed this issue by blocking any email with pictures from his children's mailboxes. Additionally, for his youngest son, he set up registered user only access. Thus, the only people this eight-year-old corresponds with are pre-approved.

If you want to be really, really sure what your kids are doing, consider child-safe browsers like ChiBrow (http://chibrow.com) and SurfMonkey (http://www.surfmonkey.com) These browsers allow users to access only certain sites. They can also be configured to permit internet access during certain times of the day, or block access after a specific amount of time has lapsed.

Of course, all these safeguards only work on your own computers. You will have to explore what safeguards are in place in your children's schools and the libraries or other public computers they might use.

James Kerr is President/CEO of SuperGeeks, a Hawaii-based computer service and repair company (www.supergeeks.net). Please feel free to send your questions, comments and suggestions to Mr. Kerr. He can be reached at kerr@supergeeks.net and 942-0773.