We all know of the dangers lurking
around the digital corners of the internet, especially when it comes
to letting kids loose online. Of course, sometimes we can do
everything we can do avoid these unwanted websites, but occasionally
there's no avoiding them. There's also another side to the issue –
Kids curiosity. Whether children mean to click something or not,
curiosity sometimes gets the better of us all, which means sometimes
those dangers are unavoidable.
But luckily, help is at hand. When I
talk to people about how to introduce kids to the world of the
internet I talk about a 3 step process; Control, Monitor and Trust.
The first step – Control, is the first introductory stage to the
web. It means controlling what your kids can access and filtering
what they see. Applications like Net Nanny can put a lock on internet
browsing, meaning any webpages that contain profanity, adult material
or a number of other questionable topics are blocked, and on some
'allowed' websites swear words and marked out.
Of course, there's no right age at
which you should allow your children free reign over the net, and
every parents opinions will be different. But at some point it is
going to happen, and this (along with a few other situations) is
where is recommend stage two – Monitor. Monitoring your kids online
is a great way of letting them have their digital freedom, while at
the same time maintaining some control and peace of mind. You can
check over what they've been looking at at any time, even without
them knowing if you wish.
Gecko Monitor
makes this process easy and manageable. The software, once installed,
will run silently in stealth mode (or visible if you wish) monitoring
everything that occurs on the computer. When you wish to review the
activity logs, you can open the software with a secret key
combination and password.
When you view the logs you'll be able
to see everything that has happened while you've been away from the
computer. Gecko Monitor, will monitor and report on all of the
following:
- All applications used.
- All websites visited.
- All documents opened, created, saved and deleted.
- Anything copied and pasted.
- Any documents printed.
- All keystrokes entered.
The software will also log the times
and dates of all activities. You can either review the logs on your
home computer or have them sent to your email address to view from a
remote location. Gecko Monitor has a free trial available on the
website.
The third and final stage is of course
– Trust. At this point (as hard as it may be!) trust must prevail
over monitoring and control. Hopefully with the help of the above
software getting to that stage might be a little bit easier!
