Parents Guide to the web safety tutorial

for many parents, the Web seems a scary, lawless place especially if you watch television or read the newspapers. It doesn't have to be like this. For this reason we produced this tutorial to show you how your kids can find a world of knowledge and fun online, and how you can help keep them stay safe while they're doing it.

Sometimes, it seems like children have been put on earth for one purpose only: to make their parents worry. They cry, our hearts skip a beat and we pick them up. Are they too cold, too hot - or are they ill? Should we pack them full of milk or change their nappy? When they start crawling, we worry even more. They could fall down the stairs, find the cat litter or get squashed behind doors. When they start walking, we're worried they could take a tumble. If they don't, we worry about that too. And shouldn't they be speaking now? And how much TV is too much? Why don't they like reading? And then, a little later, comes the Internet. If you believe everything you read in the papers or hear on the news, the moment a child gets online, all the evils in the world will be unleashed in their direction - and you won't be able to protect them.
As in all of such scenarios, these reports contain a shred of truth - but parents' worries vastly outweigh the real risks to their children. Using the Internet does entail some risk to young children, although this can be easily managed -leaving the path clear to huge benefits.
In this tutorial we'll explore the opportunities the Internet presents. We'll look in detail at how the Web can help educate and entertain your children. But to set your minds at rest, before we begin, we'll explain how easy it is to keep your kids safe while they are online.

WHAT KIND OF PC DO I NEED?

In our efforts to provide our children with the right start in life, parents usually assume that it's necessary to buy the best. The 'nothing-is-too-much-for-my-princess' approach. Anything less than the best would threaten their future, right? This is fine when you've buying formula milk or shoes - the difference between the cheapest and most expensive isn't enormous. But when it comes to computers, a desire to buy the most expensive can be seriously traumatic for your wallet.
So what do you really need? If you're buying a new computer system you really needn't spend more than £300-600 including VAT. For that, you'll get a machine which is suitable for the whole family - it'll be able to play all but the most recent 3D games, will allow everyone to surf the Internet and make light work of word processing and spreadsheets.
What about a laptop? For a family with very young children, they make a bad choice because everything is in a single box. If a drink gets spilled on a computer's keyboard you can replace it. Spill fruit juice into a laptop, and it could destroy it.
For families with young kids, the fact that laptops are easily movable is another problem as they're much more likely than a desktop PC to get knocked to the floor and end up in pieces.

For more advice on choosing the perfect computer system for your family please contact us and we will be more than happy to discuss your requirements further.

STAYING SAFE ONLINEIf you don't know much about computers, but you've read newspaper articles about the dangers that are waiting for kids online, the thought of allowing your children near the Internet can be a daunting one. Luckily, all you need to do to keep them safe and secure is take a few simple steps. We'll examine these under two headings - Computer Setup and Online Life. By paying a little attention to your computer setup, you can limit what your children can do and where they can go -controlling the nature of Web sites they can access thus reducing the risks to which they are exposed.
In the section Online Life, we'll look at the things your children will want to do while they're online, and discuss the potential risks They might face while providing a list of useful strategies that will keep them safe.

COMPUTER SETUP

Luckily, Windows takes your kids' online safety seriously. More specifically, Internet Explorer - the Windows program that lets you browse pages on the World Wide Web - can be set to block any site you decide contains inappropriate material.
Open Internet Explorer and click the Tools menu, then choose Internet Options. Select the Content tab, then click the Enable button under the Content Advisor heading.

The first screen of the Content Advisor presents you with a set of categories including Language, Nudity, Sex and Violence. If you click on one of these you can then move the slider at the bottom of the screen and adjust how tolerant you'd like Internet Explorer to be. You can, for example, ban all sites that contain even the mildest expletives but allow ones with a bit of fighting. When you're done, click Apply.
You can also use the Content Advisor to create a list of approved internet sites. Your children will be able to visit these freely, but if they venture off the list they'll be prompted for a password to continue. With some discussion, this is a very good way of ring-fencing your children's internet use.

To do this, open the Content Advisor and click on Approved sites. In the following window, you can enter all the allowed Web site addresses. After you've entered one of your approved Web addresses, click Always. To bar any specific Web site, enter its address and click Never.
Creating a whole list of approved sites can be a laborious process, though - and unless you can provide your kids with enough variety in the content, they'll get bored and restless.
To make things easier, you can download ready-made lists of approved sites generated by official organisations.
With the Content Advisor window open, click General and choose 'Find Rating system'. You'll then be take to a page on Microsoft's Web site. In the right-hand column, you'll see links to two rating systems, provided by the organisations ICRA (the Internet Content Rating Association) and SafeSurf.
To use these lists, you'll need to download a very small file and save it to the directory C:\ Windows\System32. Both systems provide exact instructions on how to do this. When you've saved the relevant file, click the Rating System button. After that, click Add, highlight the file you've just downloaded (it will end in .rat) and then click OK. Finally, apply the changes. Be warned, though - we found these systems were very restrictive, blocking access to many seemingly innocuous sites.
In order to use Content Advisor, you'll be prompted to come up with a password. Choose carefully. If the password you choose is too obscure, and you may forget it - leaving you blocked from sites and banned from changing Content Advisor's settings.
Aside from your children stumbling upon inappropriate Web sites, the main ways they may come into contact with unsavoury subject matter is through unsolicited e-mail, known as 'spam'. The best way to limit this is to use a spam blocker - a program that recognises spam e-mail and prevents it from appearing in your Inbox.
Microsoft's Web-based Hotmail e-mail service is very popular, and offers excellent spam-blocking features. The most effective protection is to set Hotmail to accept e-mail only from an approved list of senders. You can decide who the approved list of senders are beforehand with your children.