Parental Internet Filters

Child Internet filters were never heard of fifteen years ago when predators roamed the nation's city parks, bus stations and highways looking for easy prey. But now in today's America, sick and depraved people will travel hundreds of miles to meet a child or a teen in person that they met online and the outcome or at least the desired outcome the predator wants is too terrible to contemplate. Consider that one in five children on a chat room has been approached by a child predator, and that nine of ten children have accidentally come across a sexually explicit website while doing their homework. Parental Internet filters ought to be a very high priority for any family wishing to limit the corrupted influence many ideas and people want to have on the country's most precious commodity. There are a number of services available.

Most parental Internet filters offer some very similar kinds of services. To begin, most services offer a customized account for each member of the family. A one size fits all approach is not realistic for any family that wants to honor the advancement of maturity, wisdom, experience, education and spiritual maturity. Many child Internet filters offer program controls to control or limit instant messaging and the time that a child spends online, along with what time of day a child may be online. These services can also provide a log of which websites were visited and send instant alerts to the parent's office or other workplace through txt messages, phone call or email if someone at home visits an inappropriate site. For those parents who want to provide a child with some measured freedom tempered with large doses of guidance, the log of recent Net activity can provide opportunities for parents to sit down and discuss the appropriateness (or not) of trips taken to certain websites. The best filtering services will also alert parents to names, phone numbers, addresses or school names that have been posted on social networking sites.

The providers of child Internet filters often can offer parents dozens of subject headings that can be addressed and blocked. A few include any type of sexual content websites, anything with weapons, violence, or related subjects, swimsuit and lingerie sites, anything having to do with lifestyle choices, email blocking, instant messaging monitoring, anything having to do with the human body, explicit or adult language, games, gambling and many other options. But not all parental Internet filters must be bought, for a careful look on line can provide dozens of free downloadable programs that can at least help in the fight against images and ideas that responsible parents want to protect their children against. Many of these free downloads are installed by public libraries across the country, and while they may not provide customizable options for parents, the protection is a hedge against intrusion by unwanted influences.

A natural temptation for a parent is just to keep children off the Net altogether, but that is a denial of the Web's rich and undeniable source of information at one's fingertips. Virtually of the world is at the beck and call of the Net user and is becoming an absolute necessity to do business, study at schools and universities, and order pizza. Okay, the last one was a real stretch. So though parents can be afraid of their child falling, most give bicycles at early ages and come alongside until the children know how to ride safely and alone. In the mean time training wheels or an ever present parental strong arm is provided. The same philosophy can be taken about the use of the Net by our children, and part of the aid parents can give is through the use of child Internet filters.

If parents want a more Christian based approach to Internet use by a child, there are many that can offer a specific approach. Christian Internet filters are more sensitive to the philosophical creep of cultural values that have seeped into American society. For example, issues of gay or lesbian marriage can be blocked, or gambling, or online card games or alcohol and tobacco use or certain health related issues or other sites considered too harmful by the Christian Internet filters and the parameters set up by parents. The ongoing battle for the spiritual control of young hearts and minds can be a very real concern not shared by all good and involved parents, and thus the difference between regular family Internet filters and Christian Internet filters. "And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may be able to prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

Christian Internet filters can often provide easy-to-find links for children to use in homework assignments such as many homeschooling websites. These filters can offer links, for example to creationist websites to help counter evolutionist teaching at school and offer online textbooks that have a more Christian based approach than many public school text books. Whatever approach a parent takes in regards to Net use with his/her children, parental Internet filters can help bring a modicum of peace of mind. But computers should physically be placed in the middle of high traffic areas of the house so that a parent can actually keep an eye on what is being viewed. Rules about when and for how long the Internet is used must also be enforced. A president wisely said, "Trust but verify."

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