By Edward Allison
The internet is one of the most wonderful inventions of our age. Like most power tools, it also happens to be one of the most dangerous creations. Within seconds we can look up and find answers to all of our pressing questions like; What is the traffic like on the way to work? What time does the movie start? What was the score of last night’s game? You can find long lost relatives, shop for a new car, plan a trip around the world and stay in touch with all your friends across the world. It truly is wonderful!
But with one little word, just three little characters, three keystrokes S-E-X and a mouse click your son, daughter, spouse or you can will be exposed to scenes of hardcore (actual full) intercourse, scenes of oral and anal sex, even scenes portraying rape and forced sex. That is unless you put in place internet filtering technology.
Think about all the devices that are in your home that attach to the internet. Desktop computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones are the obvious ones. But many parents do not realize that gaming console, like Xbox, PlayStation even the Wii also connect to the internet and there have been instances where kids were experienced to hardcore pornographic images and video through these gaming consoles. Most music players, like IPods and other MP3 players have internet browsers built into them and are the way a lot of kids are accessing pornography. Did you know that DVD, Blu-ray players and TV’s are also connecting to the internet now to stream video and show other content from the internet. Heck there was a line of refrigerators that were connecting to the internet!
With all these different devices it is critical that we pay attention to what type of content is allowed to pass through to them. This article is meant to teach parents about some of the tools that are available to us to help safeguard our children. But I want to say first and foremost (I am even going to type in capitals so you know it is important!); THERE IS NO SUBSTITUTION TO TALKING TO YOUR KIDS AND FINDING OUT FROM THEM WHAT QUESTIONS THEY HAVE AND WHERE THEY ARE GETTING THEIR ANSWERS. This is NOT an issue about trusting your kids or spying on them or even limiting what they can look at this where the EMPOWERMENT happens. The real issue is HOW and WHAT do you want your kids to learn about sexual behaviors. So no matter what filters you choose to use, be prepared to talk to your kids about sex and pornography. Empower them with truth and knowledge so they can make their own choices.
When it comes to filtering and monitoring internet content there are 3 points of connection to concentrate on. The first is where the internet first gets into the home, the router. The router is what makes it possible for every device to connect to the internet. Most of these connections now a days are done wirelessly via WiFi, but there are still a few hard- wired directly to the router. The router the box thingy that splits the internet signal from the internet service provider’s (ISP) modem. Sometimes the modem and router are built into one device that your ISP provides for you.
You can set up a filter at the router level so every device that connects to it has some filtering performed. One of my favorites is OpenDNS.com. They are a company that offers free filtering to families by routing all the internet traffic through their servers which are set up to filter pornographic content. I will say that I am a pretty proficient “computer guy” and needed go through the setup a few times to get it to work as I wanted. For the less technically able folks they offer a paid subscription which offers support and assistance with the setup. They also have a great forum where other users offer suggestions and opportunities to help make the service better. I really like them.
For those who don’t want to be bothered with delving into the ugly world of router configuration, Pandorashope.com offers a plug and playrouter that is preconfigured to rout traffic through their filtered servers. I have a few friends that use them and have loved the support and reliability that they have gotten from them. Another great choice!
The second point of connection is at the device level. This means that actual computer, tablet or media device. There are many software applications out there that help to filter pornographic content. Netnanny.com, Covenanteyes.com, Internetsaftey.com and many others. Do your research by looking at the features and deciding what are your priorities and how capable you feel with setting them up.
The one that I happen to use is K9Webprotection.com. They, too, offer a free software package that is MAC and Windows compatible. They also offer apps through ITunes for Mac devices and Play store for Android devices. I am not sure if they are planning a version for Ubuntu or other cool but “fringe” type OS (if you are using one of those, you probably don’t need my technical advice anyway). The K9 web filter offers a lot of neat features. I have mine set to turn the internet off all together on the kids’ computer during the hours of 9PM to 6AM. The kids have learned to get their homework and other internet stuff done by 9PM. If my college girl needs a bit more time, it allows me or my wife to extend the time by 15 minute segments. There are also logs and adjustable content filters to play with. But being a free service support is limited.
The third and most important point of contact is person using the device. Our goal at Educate and Empower Kids is to teach kids that pornography is not a good way to learn about healthy sexual relationships and very quickly teaches people to treat people, especially women, in demeaning, violent ways. We want parents and kids to understand that no filter is perfect and that if something pops up that tries to lead them to pornography they can just close it up and walk away. Ultimately this is the only filter that can become 100% effective.
Check out our books and How to Talk to Your Kids About Pornography, which are also available in , for more information on this subject.
Great lessons, quick and simple discussions. Also available in Spanish.
