Do you remember the televised PSA "Do you know where your children are?" that ran 25-30 years ago? I'm not sure it served real purpose (did parents really NOT know where their children were?!) but testimony to the campaign's effectiveness is that I still remember it decades later.
If I were running that ad campaign today, I'd have to tack a word onto the end of that question: online.
Do you know where your children are online?
Over the past few years I've had friends--other mothers--come to me with broken hearts because their young tween and teen sons accessed porn sites from home computers. In some cases they boys were caught early on; in others, the parents were unsure how long it had been going on.
If I remember correctly, in every instance my friends discovered this activity by accident--not because they had reason to suspect it was going on.
Our day is marked by easy accessibility to adult sites; everyone who's reading this knows you don't even have to look for it--pop-ups and sidebar ads on legitimate sites act as a wicked siren's call with no regard for young and innocent eyes that might happen upon them.
We need all the help we can get.
Norton has stepped in with a product that does a great job of monitoring everyone in your family's online activity...in real time. You, as its administrator, determine what settings and parameters you want to place on each person who uses the computer. With Norton Online Family, you can:
- View the Web sites that each child has visited.
- Block a Web site that you think is inappropriate for your child.
- Monitor all the Internet searches that your child performs with most search engines.
- Monitor the time that each child spends on the Internet.
- View all the social networking sites that the child has visited.
- View all the instant messages that your child sends and receives.
- Block the personal information that the child attempts to send.
If you read my last post, you know I've been out of town for the weekend; obviously, I'm not at home and can't check our PC's history. How wild was it for me to log into my Norton account and see every site my family visited? The best part for the mama in me was I received no emails that indicated questionable activity--no one could have accessed the sites I blocked because of the settings I installed, but had they tried? I would have received an email notification immediately informing me, allowing me to deal with it even though I wasn't at home!
Because it's been a crazy-busy week, I haven't explored everything Norton Online Family has to offer; I can tell already, it covers most everything I could anticipate.
Please...don't just take my word for it; starting Monday you'll have opportunity to visit others who've had a chance to preview the software as well. See what they have to say.
To help get the word out about this wonderful help for families and protection for children, you'll have opportunity to win an iPod Touch! I'm thrilled to offer one in conjunction with this review, but there will be nine additional chances to win from other bloggers. Check back this afternoon when I'll have giveaway details posted!
This begs a question: How do we as parents explain the dangers of the internet to our children? How do we explain porn on the internet to them? Children are using computers from a very early age and many are already using the internet before age 4.
We're a fairly tech saavy family & I feel fairly secure from this garbage, but the porn-pushers are working just as diligently to put it in front of us. This is an area where parents can't rely or rest on any one thing and must be continually vigilant in protecting and educating their children.
Posted by: Anne-Marie | 02/09/2009 at 01:11 PM
I can't tell you the number of times my kids have happened upon a porn site in all innocence. I wonder if there's a discount if you're already using a Norton product? As for checking my husband's computer, if I ever felt compelled to do that, I'd bring us to a counselor first.
Posted by: patois | 02/09/2009 at 01:35 PM
My older daughter is grown and gone and the younger isn't using the net yet, but I wish I had discovered a product like this when my teen was surfing. I think I will definitely be buying before my youngest gets online. Thanks so much for the info!
Posted by: Sharon | 02/09/2009 at 02:05 PM
Currently, what works best for us (we have younger children still) is to not allow Internet on the desktop computer, which is the computer they use. I purchase games for it. My MIL is a teacher so she always has good software they can use. If they want to do something online (Webkinz, etc...) they can use my laptop, under supervision.
I am hoping to teach a class, at church, on how to find your kids on MySpace and Facebook. My husband is a youth minister and some parents would be amazed at the double lives their children lead.
Posted by: Heather Truett | 02/09/2009 at 02:07 PM
Sigh. This is an area in which I've fallen terribly short. I think a big reason for it is that my kids really aren't online much, if at all. I know, hard to believe for 15 & almost 14 year old boys. But it's true. One isn't interested in anything online. He doesn't even care to check his email account. The other is one very minimally. Under supervision. For the most part.
This sounds like an awesome program and I'm definitely off to check it out. It's something I've known that I need to address for some time, but haven't gotten it done. Thanks, Robin, for lighting a fire under me. :D
Posted by: Dianne | 02/09/2009 at 05:34 PM
My oldest has her own laptop she uses for school. It is harder to monitor since it travels with her but I know all the social websites she is on, and know all her passwords for her accounts so I can check on her when I want. I also walk into her room and sit down to read what she is doing, I have never had her switch screens or try to hide what she is doing.
However, I have two preteens that use the family desktop in the loft. It is in a highly visible space, again I have their email passwords, and frequently check the history on the computer but I don't feel they are really safe. I look forward to checking out the program. Thanks for the information, the review and the warnings!
Posted by: TracyB | 02/09/2009 at 10:32 PM
This product sounds like it has some great features we've been looking for. We have an "open e-mail" policy with the kids, where everything they send or receive can be viewed by us. A friend of mine runs all of their kids' email accounts through her account first (she *can* see it all), which is something we've considered. Same idea--they shouldn't be writing anything that they'd be embarrassed for their mom to read. We also emphasize how public everything is, even things that don't seem public. And the problem we've had so far with filtering programs is that they filter so much that the kids can hardly get to anything useful. But I do appreciate the attempt to err on the conservative side.
Posted by: Ann Kroeker | 02/09/2009 at 11:42 PM
My children are 8 1/2 & 4 and pretty much they just get on PBSKids and Webkinz. However, the other day, my daughter was on the computer and she had just seen the movie, October Sky, and she wanted to know more about Homer Hickham. So, we let her do a supervised search and she looked at some Wikipedia pages and a couple other pages. Well...I wasn't watching as closely as I should have been because she then got the idea to search for other names, like her own. Fortunately, nothing racy or inappropriate turned up from her searches but it was a big red flag to me that the time has come to make sure that our computer is safe for our children's eyes. So, I definitely would want to be able to block websites and keywords and meta tags, etc. In addition to that, with our social media age, eventually they will be participating in chats, IMs, etc and a record of that kind of usage would be very valuable.
Posted by: Malia | 02/10/2009 at 02:17 PM
This rocks!
Right now, we do check the kids' browser histories, albeit sporadically. We mostly use a nanny program and the highly fallible honor system, asking them to report to us if they do come across any objectionable content. They're 16 and 12 so, yeah, it's a definite concern.
I am very excited about this!
Posted by: Carol | 02/11/2009 at 12:40 PM
And my tweet for you!
http://twitter.com/SheLives/status/1199671196
Posted by: Carol | 02/11/2009 at 12:40 PM
This does sound like an answer to many prayers. Our older son was going on some sites that we did not approve of while we were not at home. I thought that we were doing okay with having the computer in a central location (the dining room) but never gave thought to what he was doing when we weren't home! Now we know what we can do with our younger ones.
Posted by: Stacey | 02/12/2009 at 01:11 PM
This sounds like a Godsend. We try our best as parents to monitor our child's activity and also trying to give them some freedom to explore the wonderful world that is the Internet. I can't believe that you can even monitor the activity of your computer when you aren't home. that is wonderfuL!! This would definitely help us in monitoring our daughters activity on the computer. Without hovering over her shoulder or constantly checking the history (which can be erased!) Both methods we have used in the past!
Posted by: Sally Sundeen | 02/14/2009 at 12:00 PM
I put the parental restrictions on and talk to them about what they can do on the internet and I "read" them and check and talk to them about what they've been doing. I liked all the features that I saw for the Norton software. How you can decide how much time they can use the internet and what sites they can use.
Posted by: Chade | 02/14/2009 at 11:56 PM
This is exactly what I've been wanting for my family computer. I can't wait to try it! I don't really stay in the loop with my kids online viewing, though I do limit their online activity each day, still, my son has stumbled upon one or two inappropriate images while searching for school reports. I'd love to be able to protect him that way!
Getting ready to write my brief post for another entry! My son REALLY wants an iPod Touch and I'd love to win it for him!
Posted by: Gina Conroy | 02/21/2009 at 10:45 AM
Okay, it must be too early, or I must be dense. Trying to figure out the right way to enter. Here's my post with the link back. http://ginaconroy.com/ginablog/wordpress/2009/02/21/keep-your-family-safe-online-and-win-an-ipod-touch/
Did I do it correctly?
Posted by: Gina Conroy | 02/21/2009 at 10:54 AM
My 13-year old daughter primarily uses the desktop computer in the living room and she routinely checks with us before she does anything "sensitive" BUT Norton Online Family Review would give me additional peace of mind.
Posted by: Thomas Ho | 02/22/2009 at 10:17 PM
I currently try and monitor my 13 year old daughter's internet by checking in on her when she is online, I have her myspace hooked up to my e-mail. I would like to be able to have a better handle on the situation. Checking history and on her, just isn't cutting it.
Posted by: karen | 02/23/2009 at 01:35 PM