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Brief look at safer surfing for you and your children |
 The next step in safe surfing may be OneKey, a search engine designed specifically to protect children, although the material is not focused on juvenile sites. Every site is inspected by a person prior to approval. Jim Perkins, who runs OneKey, has an editorial policy that filters out all of the sites on the Net that do not meet Network TV Standards. There are currently over 500 categories of sites in the database, such as business, entertainment, government, library, lifestyles, technology, sports as well as education related, but the only downside is that it's American driven site, but still includes links to popular UK sites. While especially compiled directories are a step in the right direction, your best solution to protecting yourself and your children today is probably a combination of actions. Certainly, you'll want to bookmark and use directories and web sites, such as A Positive Light, that prove themselves to have your interests at heart. You may also wish to install site blocking software such as Net Nanny or SafeSurf on your computer. Many objectionable sites are blocked, along with search words that most parents find offensive. The software can also be set to prevent children from entering chat rooms and reading postings to message boards. Another easy solution is to build a table of web sites that you and your children enjoy visiting, by creating your own web page. Once you build a favourite links web page using web authoring software such as Adobe PageMill or Microsoft FrontPage, make it your default browser page. You can even upload it and have it available to family and friends online, if you wish. The nice feature of doing this is that your browser HOME button will always bring up your own list of approved links. Unfortunately, all of the technical solutions will never replace parental responsibility. Just like parents have always taught their kids not to talk to strangers, it's important that kids today understand that there is danger in conversations online. Just as it is not OK for kids to venture too far from home without a parent, they need supervision when venturing beyond the web sites that parents have approved for them. We need to use our power as consumers to help drive the Internet marketplace. As people choose to use filtered directories and support family friendly web sites, the marketplace will respond by offering more of this type of resource. Sites that many find objectionable will become relegated to their own specialized directories. Supply and demand will ultimately prove to be the most powerful force in setting the tone of what dominates the World Wide Web. http://www.safesurf.com/
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