The Internet, as the New York Times puts it, “is getting scary”.
The problem
A majority of the current generation of parents have not been exposed to ubiquitous computers and access to super fast broadband since early childhood – but their children have.
As a result it is often the case that children are more knowledgeable about computers than their parents and are left to explore this wild west without supervision. It doesn’t take long for one child to discover something and whisper it to another and before long they know exactly what to type – with clearly unacceptable content just a quick search on Google away.
There are other issues as well – households are using computers more and more for online banking, shopping and many other personal activities besides on a daily basis. This is a treasure trove of information to criminals who have no ethics about how they get it. Can you be sure that your children are sufficiently aware of the risks so that they do not download whatever they like from websites that they’ve never heard of before?
Then there is the subject of who they chat with online – would you let your child strike up a friendship with strangers whom you have no knowledge of, how old they are, whether they are male or female, their background etc? If the answer to that question is ‘no’ then you need to ensure that the use of online messaging and chat is controlled.
The solution
We can setup your computer so that each person has their own individual login which is customised to ensure that you can tailor exactly the levels to which :
- riskier sites are handled
- specific sites of your choice are blocked
- who a user can chat with
- the type of games that can be played
- whether files can be downloaded or not
- when a user can access the computer, by day of the week, time of day or amount of time spent on the computer per day
In this way you :
- remove the pressure to allow your children to play games that would prefer them not to
- limit the amount of time a child spends on the computer without having to personally battle with them
- ensure that your child can use the computer without constant supervision
In addition it also means that each user has access to their own files, their documents, music, bookmarks etc and cannot access those of others in the family, in effect their own customised PC.
To setup family safety on your computer costs just £35 for one computer and up to four users; additional users and computers can be added for £10 per person or per computer.
