Tech tips -
Sometime ago, we talked about the parental control features built into Vista and Leopard. I mentioned at that time the availability of other third party software designed to keep your kids safe while online. I usually talk about free software. It is my preference. However, not every agrees with this philosophy.
A couple of weeks ago, I briefly mentioned Norton Online Family Beta. Although you can access it for free now in its beta stage, there will probably be a cost associated with it when the beta ends.
It is easy to get started, browse on over to onlinefamily.norton.com and register for an account. Part of the registration process involves creating profiles for your kids, entering their name, gender and birth year. The "house rules" are automatically set up based on the child's age. It is possible to customize rules on the child's profile page later.
After adding your children, click to install the safety minder software. Safety Minder needs to be installed on each computer the child will access. You can download the safetyminder.exe file or install directly from the web. As part of the install you will have to enter your username (parent e-mail) and password to Norton Online Family.
You will also have to choose a name for the computer you are installing on. The computer will then connect to the Norton website. Log in, and assign the computer account that your child will use while they are on this computer. You can click the plus sign to add all your kids at this time.
Remember, just like Vista Parental Controls, each child needs their own account on the computer. There is a "How To" on the website on how to set up accounts.
Now, you would turn on Personal Information Protection. This section allows you to enter any information that you don't want your child to be able to share on the internet such as phone number, e-mail address, social security number, school name, address or any other info that should not go out from your child's account.
You should work your way through all the different sections. For example, click "web" to control if sites are blocked or just monitored. Choose all the categories of websites you don't want your kid to access. If you don't want your kids on gambling sites simply click that category. You can also add specific websites to block or allow.
If your child tries to access a website in one of the blocked categories, they will get a message saying they are trying to access a forbidden site. The child can, at that time, enter a reason that will be recorded for the parent, why they tried to visit this site and you can choose whether to unblock or not.
Click instant messaging to control your child's chat rights. You can even give yourself the right to approve all new IM Friends before your child can begin to talk with them.
Let's see, what else can you influence? You can turn on "safe search" for participating search engines like Google. You can control the amount of time your child can be on the computer and the hours that child should not have any access. You can choose to be notified by e-mail when your child has attempted to break the rules or tried to provide inaccurate information on a social networking site.
Once it is all set up, you simply logon to the Norton site and view your kids' online activity their most visited sites, most popular IM friends, and even their searches. Pretty sweet!
One more bit of advice, remove any internet toolbars that might try to connect to blocked sites because these will create a fault in the browser, causing it to crash.
toddmusseau@gmail.com
.jpg)
.jpg)
