Younger (and sometimes even not-so-younger) grandkids coming over? How fun! Time to make sure our house is kid-friendly and safe. You know, make sure all medicines are up high, no unsafe cleaning liquids are easily accessible to little ones, and the computer is set up for safe surfing. The computer? Yup. We grandparents of the internet age need to come along side our children in providing a safe environment for our grandchildren to surf the web. How do we do that?
1. Password protect all computers so that they have to check in with you before using one.
2. Make sure the computers they use are in an open area where you can supervise easily. If this is not possible, stay with them whenever they are using the internet. This is to supervise, assist them in surfing, and protect your computer.
3. Set up a User Account just for the grandkids.
4. Set the Screensaver on all accounts to turn on after 2-3 minutes and require a password to log back in. That way, if you forget to switch it to their account, it will help “remind you.”
5. Set up the homepage for a child-friendly page. My grandkids love Webkinz so I usually use that as the homepage. I’ve also used Crosswalk.com, Noggin.com, and Kid Explorers – http://budurl.com/KidExplorersMain .
6. Go to Google.com – www.google.com – go to the preferences, SafeSearch Filtering, and select strict filtering. This doesn’t give a lot of protection, but it does offer some – it “blocks web pages containing explicit sexual content, text and images, from appearing in search results.” It does, however, allow plenty of other inappropriate content through so be aware of that.
7. Bookmark several kid-safe sites for the grandkids to use for searching, research, etc. Some sites that look like good resources include:
AOL’s Homework Help for older kids – http://budurl.com/AOLHomeworkHelp
AOL’s Homework Help Jr. for younger kids – http://budurl.com/AOLHomeworkHelpJr
CyberSleuth Kids – http://budurl.com/CybersleuthKids
FactMonster – http://budurl.com/FactMonster
Kids’ Search Tools by Ramapo Catskill Library System – http://budurl.com/KidsSearchTools
Oswego City Schools’ Search Site – http://budurl.com/OswegoSchoolSearch
Quintura Kids – http://budurl.com/QuinturaKids
Tekmom’s Search Tools for Kids – http://budurl.com/TekMomsSearchTools
IMPORTANT CAVEAT – Everything on the web is subject to change with little or no notice. In addition, a child can start on a safe site and then be taken to an unsafe, inappropriate site. It’s important for each of us to check each site before sharing them with our grandchildren, and keep checking them regularly. This is another good reason to have the computer in an area that’s easy to supervise.
8. If you really want to make a totally enclosed safe environment, you can try a software like NetNanny or Norton’s SystemWorks with parental controls. I use Norton’s software for my firewall and antivirus protection, but the parental controls seemed to block everything so I turned it off. I haven’t tried anything else yet, preferring to stick with close supervision. So far that is working fine. When it doesn’t, I will be researching further and keep you all posted as well.
9. If you have any suggestions, tips, ideas, software products, or sites to recommend, please leave a comment below, or write me at Kaye@SandwichINK.com . I’d love to keep adding to this list.
If you need specific directions for any of these ideas, please write me about that as well. I will email them to you, or if there is enough interest, I will post them on this site.
