Parental Control

Exactly ! Parental Control.

A large percenage of the people we visit have kids and we always get aked the same questions about Parent Control.

The answer is: the best control is you, the Parent!

1. Most important, and the best advice we can give: If you can, place the computer in a communal space, not behind a closed door in a bedroom. Somewhere we you can see the screen any time you like without intruding.

2. Check the bowser history !

3. Ask them to show you through their list of contacts in MSN Messenger, Yahoo messenger, Hotmail, GMail, etc. Be aware that they may be running multiple accounts.

4. Check their blogs and make sure they have nothing that can easily identify anyone, such as real name, real town name. Imagine how a photo of someone called "Fred" stood outsde the "St Bob School" in "Billyville" identifies the person too well. In the end they imagine how their blog is a little private world they share with their friends, but it's globally accessible, and they often don't fully appreciate this.

5. Don't let them install tools that "clean" their PC. These tools are well known and shared amongst teens especially. These are programs that remove all trace of all PC activity. The question to ask is, why do they need them?

6. Don't panic! In over 1'000 PC callouts we have almost never seen any evidence of any "misuse" by kids on their PC's. And we know where to look :-)

If you still want to go for the software option, we can recommend both Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol. There are also ISP solutions, such as Securitoo from Orange.

One feature we do like in these programs is the ability to set "time zones" controlling whether the internet works or not. So for example, the connection cuts off automatically at 9:30 pm. It's amazing how many kids accept that more obediently than "Time for bed" !

Of course, if you feel that you need help with this, contact us and we'll come and advise and help you.