In the era when modern technologies are developing rapidly, even preschoolers know how to use a mobile phone. At the same time, teens often appear to be more technically savvy than their parents. The Internet may be helpful in education, opening the whole world for children and letting them stay in touch with their friends. However, careful parents know that the Web may also hide numerous covert threats. How can you protect your little ones from online predators, fraudsters, and cyberbullies? Browser content filter software can be helpful.
Should You Filter The Content Your Kids See Online? Sure Thing!
Browser content filter software can help protect you from viewing potentially offensive or harmful websites. By blocking certain types of content, such as pornography or violence, you can help keep yourself and your family safe from online dangers.
There are a number of different browser content filter software programs available, so it is important to find one that meets your needs. Some programs are free, while others require a subscription fee. Be sure to read the reviews of any program you are considering before making a purchase.
Once you have installed browser content filter software, it is important to keep it up to date. New websites are constantly being created, and old ones are constantly changing. By keeping your software up to date, you can ensure that it will continue to protect you from viewing inappropriate content.
One of the most effective measures you can implement is to utilize browser filtering software. It helps you block anything inappropriate your children may encounter while surfing the Internet. Today, software developers offer a wide range of filtering software products. Among them:
- Special kids’ search engines;
- Kids’ browsers;
- Built-in browser content filter;
- Mobile-based parental control apps;
- Computer-, router- or extension-based filters.
All this software is designed to monitor and control a child’s activity online. From this variety of solutions, parents may choose the product which meets all their needs to the fullest. Here are several important reasons why you should take advantage of using content filtering software for kids:
Ensure protection from inappropriate content
Browser controls are designed to weed out objectionable content: porn, violence, drugs, spam, inappropriate ads, and other potentially dangerous matters. Many kids’ browsers offer parent-controlled e-mail boxes, games, videos, and other cool resources and content. Kids’ search engines are also designed to provide credible, comprehensive, safe search results. In addition, you can benefit from using age-based filtering presets.
User-friendly and customizable monitoring
Besides filtering and blocking inappropriate stuff, browser filters offer many other useful features, such as recording your kid’s online activity, reporting and sending notifications on what has been searched, and how much time the child has spent doing what. Content filters are highly customizable and let parents decide what limits to set and which notifications to receive. In any case, if something goes wrong, you will be informed about it immediately. You may interfere and stop your kid, for example, from sharing personal data or protecting them from a cyberbully.
Avoid offensive words
Another great feature is masking profanity in a text instead of blocking all content. Thus, even if a kid stumbles across obscene words on a page, they won’t see them.
Say no to malware
One more helpful feature of a browser filter is preventing a child from visiting malware-ridden sites. It would help if you still kept antivirus software working, too.
Boost kid’s productivity
Content filters and kids’ browsers may help your child become more concentrated and productive and achieve better school results by blocking distracting sites. First of all, these are social networks and online games, which sometimes may even become the reason for Internet addiction.
Save resources
Blocking data-draining sites like YouTube or Snapchat may reduce Internet data usage, save memory on a mobile device and extend its battery life.
Choosing the right content filtering software to monitor your child’s online activity may depend on different factors. Is your kid technically savvy? How much time do they usually spend online? Has a child searched for age-inappropriate stuff before? In most cases, simple filters can be enough to meet all parents’ needs. From an early age, educate your kids to use the Internet safely and
Think critically about their actions and possible risks. Also, with time kids may get to know different ways to bypass Internet filters, so you’d better be on guard. Furthermore, as your children age, develop their sense of responsibility and grow mutual trust between them and you by setting certain rules and restrictions.