HOW TO MAKE THE INTERNET SAFE FOR YOUR KID'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The tragedy at Columbine brought a lot of attention to the Internet and to violent video games. Unfortunately, news reporters knew nothing about either subject, and so were delivering the same basic story: the Internet is bad, video games are bad. But they didn't understand that the Internet can be very safe, with the proper precautions and supervision.

The Internet is NOT television. The Internet is more like a city street; there are many shady people that would love to take your child's money, or worse. Many children are trusting of strangers, and children are always influenced by new ideas -- how can you police their interactions so you make sure that they're not conversing with a maniac?

In this article you'll find out:If the Internet is safe for kids How to protect your child from shady characters How to block them from visiting inappropriate sites The skinny on violence on the Internet and in video games How Do I Know?

• Much of my teen years were spent in front of a computer -- even in the days before the Internet, a teenager could use a PC and modem to access all kinds of information. Remember the movie "WarGames"? Well, I wasn't that bad, but I was amazed at what a kid could see and do, all without regard for age. Fortunately, my parents had instilled some taste and common sense into my brain, so I managed to avoid the truly tasteless things I suddenly had free access to.


• The same went for video games. Frankly, I enjoy violent video games -- some of them are quite fun. However, these graphically violent games did not exist when I was younger. The early Atari and Nintendo games I played were wholesome fun.


• If my experiences have taught me anything, it is that a child with a computer can have virtually limitless access to all kinds of vulgar material, whether it be violent or pornographic. But this same child also has access to a wealth of information to advance their intelligence, and after all, that knowledge has helped me to a successful career and also to start this web site.

Online Dangers:PornographyOn search engines like Yahoo and Altavista, the top five words most commonly searched for are pornographic in nature. That statistic alone shows you how much pornographic material is open to the public, even minors. There are literally hundreds of thousands of web sites that are devoted to pornography.

There are laws that require these sites to determine if the viewer is over 18 years of age, so the law-abiding sites will require a credit card check. However, many pornographic sites are hosted outside of the United States, thus avoiding the law and providing extremely graphic material to anyone who ventures to their web page. Even worse, some sites use trickery to induce new members to their pornography pages: a child who mistakenly enters http://www.whitehouse.com/ instead of the real address, http://www.whitehouse.gov/, will get an eyeful of XXX-rated material.

Hate Sites:Nazis, the KKK, Black Supremacists: they're all on the Internet, and they would love to recruit your child as a new member. The Internet is an excellent forum for disgruntled people to voice their views without debate -- they just put up a web page. You need to make sure your kids aren't unduly influenced by these monsters.

Use Blocking and Filtering Software:There is software you can buy that will help you protect your children. One type is Web-blocking software, which works with your current web browser to block out sites that are deemed inappropriate for children. The list of inappropriate sites is updated constantly by the software company, so there is minimal effort that needs to be put in by the parent. However, this is no substitute for surfing the Internet WITH your child.

Filtering software works with your e-mail software to filter out any messages from "unauthorized" people. For instance, you can authorize family and friends to send e-mail to your child, and anyone else who tries will get their e-mail bounced back to them.