Kid Safe Internet Time

What should parents seek to help protect their children while they are online?

Unfortunately, there are multiple things that parents need to protect their children from online. Of course there are the concerns about adult content, but persistent advertising can be just as much of a concern as the adult content. Marketers seek out sites that are frequented by kids and inundate them advertising.

What are some of your suggestions?

There are two online tools that stand out. One is zoodles.com and kidzui.com they both are kid friendly web browsers. They offer filtered web searches, pre-approved Youtube videos, violence filtering, and safe sharing of photos. Filtered web browsers designed for children have been around for years, what makes these two different than some of the older browsers are the extra features that they have. One that stands out is a parents’ dashboard. These include functions that allow parents to set time limits for their children online, allows parents to add websites.

Is there a fee for these web browsers?

Each of these web browsers offer both a free version and a premium version that includes many of the most useful parental features. The premium packages can vary from $8 per month to $60 a year.


Any other suggestions?

Parents of older children should keep in mind that if they have a computer that uses Windows 7, it includes parental features that can be used in conjunction or place of the web browsers. The Xbox from Microsoft also has parental features. Talk to children of all ages about the dangers of interacting with those that they don’t know online. And also to be careful about the information that they provide to people or post online.