If you have children that regularly use the computer and you are concerned about their exposure to harmful content on the internet then you should seriously consider installing parental control software. “1 in 5 children aged 10 to 17 have received a sexual solicitation over the internet”  I have been using Net Nanny on my home computers and have been very pleased at the level of protection it provides. One license will allow you to install a copy on up to 3 computers.

Net Nanny has a number of ways that it targets areas that can be potential avenues for harmful content. It also allows you the parent full control over who has access or not. It also has a robust reporting feature that allows you to receive regular email or text updates on potential violations of the policy.

Areas that Net Nanny targets are:

PC Game blocking

Do you have a child that loves to play games, who dosen’t! I’m concerned about some of these games out there that have violent content that I wouldn’t allow myself to watch let alone my children. By incorporating a rating system from the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Net Nanny is able to block games based on these categories.

Social Networking

These social networking sites seem to be all the rage now, like facebook, Myspace etc…  Where anybody can be your so called “friend”. As a parent you should know who your children are friends with. Net Nanny allows you access to view your child’s profile online.

Instant Messaging

Who doesn’t use instant messaging, even big corporations have adopted I.M. as a viable means of communication. It’s even more popular amount the young people. Net Nanny will help you monitor IM chat sessions to see who your children are chatting with.

Website filtering and blocking

The World Wide Web is wide open to all types of undesirable content. Even if someone is not specifically looking for it you can inadvertently click on a link and it could take you to a place you just don’t want to go. Net Nanny has a great filter system that does a good job at blocking content by categories. You can even setup Net Nanny to restrict access to just certain websites or block all internet access alltogether. Net Nanny also integrates with all the popular search engines and will block all searches based on the content you set.

Reporting

My favorite feature of Net Nanny is the reporting aspect. Net Nanny will allow you to monitor your childs internet use. You can receive updates through email or Cell phone on what your children are doing on the internet.

Net Nanny is an all encompassing tool that does the best job I have seen at keeping your child safe from harmful content while they useing the computer. However good Net Nanny is it’s just a tool and this tool doesn’t replace the responsibility the parent has in talking with their children and warning them about the harmful content on the internet so they can learn to choose to avoid it.

 
Happy and safe internet use.

For those of you who still like to use Internet Explorer over Firefox, I know there must be a few of you still out there,  There is a application called Maxthon that runs off of IE’s core program and adds many cool and useful features that you only wish IE or Firefox had.

Tabbed Browsing 

Tabs aren’t new and other browsers have them but Maxthon in my opinion does the best job of implementing them in there browser.

Groups

You no doubt have heard of favorites but have you heard of groups? Groups makes it easier for you to save groups of favorites and instantly bring all them up with a click of a button. This really saves time when I want to look at all of my geeky websites, I just go to my geeky website group and one click brings them all up.

Magic Fill

Magic fill is a spin off to IE’s remember your password, it allows you to easily manage your passwords and edit them as you change passwords.

Screen Capture

We all know Snagit rules the screen capture scene but if you need to quickly capture something there is no beating Maxthon’s screen capture tool for ease of use.

Ad Hunter

Enough with those pesky ad’s and popus, Maxthon stops them cold and easily allows you to edit any website where you find the ad to irresistible to resist.

Built in RSS Reader

If you haven’t discovered RSS then your wasting a lot of time on the internet. See here for more info on what RSS is. Maxthon has it’s own built in RSS reader to display your favorite feed’s all in one place, albeit it doesn’t have all the features as the big boys but its convenient to have all of them in one place to look at while your still browsing.

These are just a few features that make Maxthon the best browser in my opinion.