Child Home Alone All Day With A Computer? How To Keep Them Safe While Online
If your children are home alone during the day and they have access to a computer, you need to be very careful about what they have access to. You likely already know how dangerous the Internet can be to children. Your children could also easily damage your computer, such as cause you to get a virus, spyware, and malware if they download free software. Below are some tips on what you can do to keep your child safe while they are on your computer.
Install a Web Filter
When your child is on the Internet, they are very vulnerable to online threats, such as:
- Downloadable illegal content
- Bullying
- Hacking
- Child predators
To keep this from happening, you can install a web filter on your computer. When your child types in a website address, the program has a filter that checks the content on the website against a set of rules that you set up during the installation. If anything is found on the site, the website will be blocked out.
Some web filters automatically scan websites for things like viruses, spyware, and other types of objectionable content, and if these things are found, the websites will immediately be blocked. Exactly how this works depends on the web filter software you choose. It will come with complete instructions on how to set it up. In many cases, you will have to pay a monthly fee to the company you purchase the web filtering program from.
Use Browser's Parental Controls
Some browsers have parental controls that will allow you to set up content filters for things like sex, nudity, language, and violence. This works much like the web filtering software, as the website will be blocked if anything is found in it that is set up from the filters. You can do both web filters and parental controls to give extra protection.
Some browsers do not offer any parental controls, and you should be aware of this just in case you have this installed on your computer. If so, uninstall the browser and install a safer one. There are also browsers set up for children that have curated content so they cannot get on any sites they should not be on. These browsers are much safer for children to use.
If you are having any problems getting any of this set up, take your computer to a computer repair company, such as Net Help 24/7, in your area to do this for you.