Parents: Don't Assume Software Keeps Your Kids Safe Online

If you're the parent or guardian of a child, you want to keep them safe and within their own element. This is true when your child is in his or her own neighborhood, walking downtown, or simply sitting down at the family PC.

Yet there's a scary truth you must know. If you depend exclusively on software designed to baby sit your kids' online experience, the only security you may be purchasing is a false sense of one.

Every year, the software developed to help you determine what spaces and places online you don't want your child to reach really does get smarter and more powerful. There is really no question about that.

But the downside is that your kids - and their more talented friends and online chat and messaging buddies - get smarter too in ways they let them cheat and defeat all those careful protections you apply. Then they spend huge amounts of time trading these tips and tricks around so that other kids can get around the limitations you set.

So what's a parent to do? The good news: there is plenty you can do, and all without spending a year at CalTech or MIT learning the nitty gritty details about computer security and configuration.

Here's 10 savvy ways you can fill in the holes your software cyber sitter leaves uncovered:

1. When you set up your cyber security software, you set up a user account and password to identify you as the parent and the person with the rights to make changes to what your kid(s) can see and do. Make that password strong by changing it very frequently (at least once a month), by making it a random mix of alphanumeric characters like gq7jr03h5 or e94n00b2, and by not writing the password down where your kids can find it.

2. Set up separate user accounts for every person who shares a single PC and require that each person have a separate password to log on. When you as an adult are not using the PC, log off so your kids can't come along to access your setup or change the password or settings for your cyber sitter software.

3. If you use Windows XP, you can set up two types of accounts: Administrator and Limited. Non-adults should be given a Limited type account.

4. Make a habit of checking the History option available in your Web browser to see a list of recently visited Web sites. If you see questionable sites listed there, you know your cyber sitter software is not set up powerfully enough or your child has found a way around it.

5. Without trying to seem like a parental police officer, make a point of dropping by the PC from time to time while you child is working. You may be very surprised what you see on the screen, as well as how expert some kids are at trying to hide it quickly. There are even programs to help them hide chat screens or movie players super fast.

6. Make it every clear that your children must not give out your home address or phone number without your express consent. Make it clear that this extends to their private pagers and cell phones as well.

7. If your child suddenly begins receiving phone calls or packages from strangers, especially if these appear to be adult strangers, ask questions and monitor the situation carefully.

8. Keep your children's time online within certain reasonable limits. A child spending more than two or three consecutive hours online increases his/her chance of exposure to unsavory people.

9. Encourage your kids to speak to you about material they find on the Internet that they do not understand; this can open up a dialog that can help keep kids from identifying racy or even illegal Web sites as something exciting rather than something to avoid.

10. Consider keeping the PC in a central room in the house - the kitchen or living room - rather than setting up separate PCs in children's bedrooms.