Parents, kids and the internet
Here are some ways you can protect your kids when they play on the information superhighway
From Kentucky Citizen Digest, July, 1997

The Internet has great value and even greater potential, but it can be a scary place for kids. You don’t let your children play on the interstate, so why would you let them play on the Internet unsupervised?

Rather than reinventing the wheel, we have compiled a list of sites that we hope will help guide your decisions about your family and the Internet. We listed organizations that manage sites that give a general overview of potential hazards and ways to avoid them. We’ve also included a number of software programs (listed below) for keeping kids (and adults) out of potentially harmful sites.  Finally, we provided several links to web sites and Internet indexes designed specifically with kids in mind.

We encourage you to study this problem diligently and spend time surfing with your children:  There is no substitute for your guidance.

If you want protection before you start surfing, many software firms have developed site-filtering and site-blocking products that restrict access to sites which either you or your company consider harmful or inappropriate. We do not endorse any of these products, specifically:

Cyber Patrol

Cybersitter

Net Nanny

Surfwatch

Schools have a special responsibility to parents and their children to provide them the best education possible. They also have a responsibility to make sure children are not exposed to materials that may violate the values they are taught at home. Therefore, schools should consider policies at the district and school level that incorporate the following components:

n    Require the written, informed consent of parents before any individual child is given Internet privileges. Parents should be informed that there are objectionable materials available on the Internet and what the school and district policies do to prevent abuse of the Internet.

n    Subscribe to an Internet service that offers a system which filters out objectionable materials; if the service subscribed to does not offer such a system, schools should consider purchasing one of the many filtering systems now available on the market.

n    Require that a teacher, teaching assistant or other adult is present in the room when students are using computers or accessing the Internet.

These three policies would prevent students from accessing objectionable material and ensure that school resources are used for their intended purpose.
 

Key Family Foundation Contacts: Kent Ostrander, Executive Director Martin Cothran, Senior Associate Policy Analyst