It is important that parents regularly review the Browser History. By doing so, they get to know what exactly their children have been browsing. It is quite apparent that a review would always be done discreetly and hence this comes under the Monitoring aspect-which itself is a very sensitive issue. After all kids don’t like someone monitoring, don’t they? But then it can’t be ignored, especially if you are parent of a teenager. Today’s kids are both smart and sensitive. They know how to cover their tracks and at the same time reciprocate if you shower them with enough Trust. I am strongly for the later and which I call a non-technical approach. But monitoring is undoubtedly an essential aspect, more out of concerns of safety of your children rather than trust issues. There are many ways by which you can and should monitor their online activities.
The simplest way is to click on the history button of the web browser. There are some good Parental Control software’s available which have excellent features. They have the ability to directly mail you browsing and other related reports. They can alert you and let you take proactive measures. You get to know what they are surfing and which sites they are visiting. Reviewing of browsing history is just one part of the monitoring process. There are many others. Don’t get overwhelmed. Try to educate yourself as much and whenever possible. Or take help of experts who can guide you with the technical aspects of monitoring. But let me remind you once again, it is Trust which is supreme.
2 Comments
I believe in the importance of monitoring the computer activities of our children. The internet is vast and unrestricted, it has the power to influence the fragile minds of our child. Checking on the history button is a good tactic, however kids are creative nowadays. They can easily disable the history option. Unless their access is limited.
Thanks for commenting Walter. It is true that today’s kids are very creative and parents need to ‘keep pace’ with them. I also suggest that if it is a shared PC they use at home, then separate user id and appropriate rights should also be configured.