If you wish to use a software program to block your kids from seeing objectionable material on the web, here are several that you may find useful. However, keep in mind that these programs don't solve the problem for you. Spending an hour reviewing a report of where your children have been on-line, and visiting some of the sites they see after they are in bed, may take longer than simply surfing the Web with them. Further, some programs block legitimate sites, and can become a form of censorship. Check out www.smartparent.com to see a review of different parental-control software with links to vendors pages.

CyberSnoop (www.pearlsw.com $30) lets you block all internet access or only access to certain kinds of materials. You can set four levels of security covering email, chat rooms, file searches, and Web page access.

WinWhatWhere for Families (www.winwhatwhere.com $29) doesn't block access to anything, but records everything done on-line and lets you review different reports of your child's activity. It can run with a noticeable icon, or run invisibly so that your teens don't know it's active.



Parental-Control.Com(www.parental-control.com) A collection of programs ranging from $30 to $50 for monitoring internet chat, keyboard activity, and websites visited. There are educational discounts available.

Addict (shareware, $15) allows you to control your child's PC usage by limiting the amount of time programs can be run in a day, browsers or games for example. You can also set it to limit total computer usage per day.

Check out Growing Up Digital (McGraw Hill) by Don Tapscott and read about the "generation lap" that occurs when your child knows more about the computer than you.

See www.familyguidebook.com to read A Parents' Guide to the Internet to learn how to make the most of your time on-line with your child.

Check out search engines like Yahooligans to find search engines listing only preapproved sites for children.

Thanks to HomePC magazine for providing these great links:

The Children's Partnership the Parents' Guide to the Information Superhighway
National Center for Missing Children has tips for online safety as well as phone numbers to report illegal activities related to children
Computer Learning Foundation includes links to both parent and age-appropriate child related sites
GetNetWise has tips on how to teach your children wise net behavior
SmartParent.Com a link for... well, smart parents which includes a Children's Pledge to Online Safety you can print and post by the computer.