Kids + Computer + Naked Women = Angry Mom

[Disgusted-Daily]

The other day at a family gathering we were eating dinner and was wondering what the kids were doing.

As my wife strolled down the hallway to the computer room my 12yr old nephew came running out of the room, leaving my 10yr old son sitting at the computer with a embarrassing guilty look on his face.

My wife asked what they were doing and got the standard child reply.....nothing. My wife goes on the computer to bring up the history and finds a pic of a naked women from youtube.

After getting home my wife questioned my son who is very honest and says that he has never done that and his cousin told him what to type in. It was explained to him in a nice way that this was a big time no no.

The rest of the family thought it was funny, but none of them know anything about the computer or kids on the computer. This was very disturbing to me and my wife knowing the what ifs that can happen with kids unsupervised on the computer.

So my question is what can I do so they can't look at this content other than supervision? I have Millennium and my mother in-law has Vista.

Hope you can help out before my wife breaks my sons fingers or pokes him in the eyes hahahaha!

[frankcor]

Move the computer into a family area and never permit the kid to operate it without parental supervision. You wouldn't let a stranger visit your kid in his bedroom, would you? Letting him have a computer in there is the same thing.

There is no automated protection scheme that a reasonably intelligent and curious kid can't defeat.

[lilbump1980]

Todd, unfortunatley nothing is ever 100%. I can tell you when I was 15 we got our first computer. My mom insisted it go in the living room or dining room i can't remember however it was an open room. She wanted to be able to see what i was doing at all times. And god forbid I ever minimized a screen when she walked by watch out..... she would go right in it and pull it up. Microsoft's website has some info on blocking some websites with ratings.. you can check it out it may help:

search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?form=MSHOME&setlang=en-us&q=how+to+block+websites&mkt=en-us

[Clipper]

The computer in an open area, and close monitoring is all you can do. If a kid wants to be "naughty" they will find a way. I think you can block "myspace" and "you tube", but as far as looking at naked people etc. one of my nephews simply googled "free porn" and brought the computer to a screeching halt with a nasty virus, by simply clicking about and looking at pictures. (better than the virus he might have picked up with some other types of curiosity and experimenting, LOL)

I guess the only real cure is discipline, and respect. You tell the kid about the dangers, and repeat, repeat, repeat, and hope they repsect you enough to take the warnings of the dangers to heart and obey your wishes.

Hell, I am 61 years old, and some of the crap that appears on Myspace, shocked me enough that I don't go there. Even as an adult, I have to be careful where I click. I recently got a trojan into my computer, by clicking on a "free antivirus" program. It took me a couple of days to get rid of the damn thing, using a variety of different anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. I was on the verge of dumping and reformatting my computer when I finally got rid of it with a software program I obtained online with the advice of a computer savvy friend.

I let down my guard for only a minute. I run windows XP. An ad came up to try XP antivirus. WELL, let me tell you, it didn't have anything to do with windows xp. It wanted you to buy the software package, and it popped up several times a minute. It had no "uninstall" capability within it. I was tearing out what little hair I have left, LOL.

[Swimmy]

1. Purchase a copy of Net Nanny. It is the better of the filtering programs out there that is reputable and reliable. With it, you can restrict specific sites, and filter out certain content. The settings can only be altered by entering a master password, only have one of you know it so the kid can't play you off each other.
2. check out www.netlingo.com/ it has a good deal of information about the Internet.
3. learn the lingo, e.g. asl means age, sex, location
4. keep the computer in a central location and have it password protected so that the children cannot access the computer without your presence, at least until 16 or 17.
5. instruct your children that they are to give you a copy of their password at all times, if they change it on you they lose all computer privileges.
6. no myspace, facebook, or similar sites until they are over 18. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=6r_hDpsVjkM) make sure the kids watch it too.
7. no chat rooms allowed and set AIM buddy lists to a private level where only specific screen names are allowed to see their screen name.
8. have a serious sit down with the kids to explain the real dangers of accessing the Internet

While the above does not completely safeguard your children from the dangers posed by the Internet, the above will drastically reduce their susceptibility to any undesirable consequences. Many of these are taught at computer Internet awareness classes. I will ask my mother if she still have the pamphlet from when she attended a few months ago for some teacher workshop. My parents instilled many of the above and they did a good job.

As for anti-virus software, try free grisoft.

[Disgusted-Daily]

Thanks everyone!

I thought their was a setting in the computer to stop the viewing of this kind of content. The new computer rules have been implemented as we speak and will be strictly enforced.

[frankcor]

You're welcome. Your kids have a huge advantage -- caring, involved parents. You go, todd.