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If you have ever spent any amount of time online, you know that it is virtually impossible to block every offensive website or e-mail.  However, there are a few tools to help you, as a parent, protect and monitor your child's activities online.

The use and level of parental control will vary according to the age of your child.  An older teenager will require much less monitoring than your five-year-old.  However, this is not to say that you should not monitor the activity and behavior of your teenagers online also.

The use of a good Internet filtering or parental control software can work wonders in helping to monitor how members of your family use the Internet.  Many of the Internet monitoring software programs that are available to parents are extremely sophisticated, meaning that you can monitor virtually every key stroke on your computer.  This, of course, is probably impractical.

So here are a few practical suggestions, in addition to software, that will help you get started protecting your children online.

You can begin by choosing an Internet service provider that provides built-in parental controls or online filtering tools with your package.  This may require a bit of research or your part, but it is well worth it in the end.  Levels of parental control and filtering will of course vary from provider to provider.

Another effective parental control is the use of Internet routers in conjunction with your Internet service.  Routers can be set up to block suspicious and offensive content before it even reaches your computer.  They can also be configured with different profiles and login requirements for each family member, which allows age-appropriate monitoring.

You can also control what content your children have access to online via your computer's operating system.  With Windows Vista, a suite of parental controls has been incorporated into the software.  It offers a way to block certain content, access to certain programs, and can also limit the amount of time spent online by your child.

If you own a Mac computer, you probably know that parental controls have long been provided.  However, the current Mac OS 10.4, Tiger, goes beyond even what Windows Vista offers.  Parents can easily limit overall system access for their children.  For example, you can decide whether or not to allow access to your printer or even the ability to burn CD/DVDs from your computer.

These are just a few ideas to help you get started protecting your children online by using some simple and effective parental controls that are readily available.  You are certain to uncover more parental control tools and ideas as you become more familiar and comfortable with the Internet in your home.
 
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