Protecting Children Online
Children need parents and carers to teach them how to make smart choices about who and what they find online.
The sites in the list of Suggested Sites below have been created specifically for the benefit of children.
For home and school environments authorities recommend web filtering. However the web is very dynamic and this technology can never hope to filter all content on the web.
Authorities therefore advise that internet content filters are a tool to be used in conjunction with parental supervision – they do not provide total protection in themselves.
However parents know from experience that it is not reasonable to expect children to be supervised all the time. Fortunately there are other technologies that can be used to protect children when they are not closely supervised. One of these technologies is generically known as the "walled garden".
The Walled Garden
To provide children with a safe play area you:
1. Fence off the area and ensure they cannot get out without your help.
2. Ensure that everything in the fenced off area is as safe as possible for the children's use.
You can adopt the same approach with online content.
By implementing the "walled garden" feature in a router powered by CoovaAP your child can only access those sites you consider safe. All other sites are blocked by the "wall". A user can only progress from the walled garden to the www when you login using the appropriate access code.
A walled garden can also be implemented at the PC level by adding the Glubble extension to the Firefox we browser. The Glubble Library already includes over 60 collections of suitable web sites. The "helper" also has the ability to add more sites to the library.
Access Policies
Most families, especially those with teenage children, will appreciate that bandwidth or the monthly download quota is never big enough. For these families accountable internet usage and the implementation of internet access policies for individual family members is a problem. Your ISP provides you with a set quota a month. Wouldn't it be good it you could set a quota for each family member in the same way? A free account with Coova lets you achieve this. Features in CoovaAAA allow you to set data limits for a month or smaller periods such as weeks, days or hours.
Suggested Sites
While the following sites are available to the general public and are considered by the authors of this site to be safe for families, especially children, reliance you place on the following sites is strictly at your own risk.
Children need parents and carers to teach them how to make smart choices about who and what they find online.
The sites in the list of Suggested Sites below have been created specifically for the benefit of children.
For home and school environments authorities recommend web filtering. However the web is very dynamic and this technology can never hope to filter all content on the web.
Authorities therefore advise that internet content filters are a tool to be used in conjunction with parental supervision – they do not provide total protection in themselves.
However parents know from experience that it is not reasonable to expect children to be supervised all the time. Fortunately there are other technologies that can be used to protect children when they are not closely supervised. One of these technologies is generically known as the "walled garden".
The Walled Garden
To provide children with a safe play area you:
1. Fence off the area and ensure they cannot get out without your help.
2. Ensure that everything in the fenced off area is as safe as possible for the children's use.
You can adopt the same approach with online content.
By implementing the "walled garden" feature in a router powered by CoovaAP your child can only access those sites you consider safe. All other sites are blocked by the "wall". A user can only progress from the walled garden to the www when you login using the appropriate access code.
A walled garden can also be implemented at the PC level by adding the Glubble extension to the Firefox we browser. The Glubble Library already includes over 60 collections of suitable web sites. The "helper" also has the ability to add more sites to the library.
Access Policies
Most families, especially those with teenage children, will appreciate that bandwidth or the monthly download quota is never big enough. For these families accountable internet usage and the implementation of internet access policies for individual family members is a problem. Your ISP provides you with a set quota a month. Wouldn't it be good it you could set a quota for each family member in the same way? A free account with Coova lets you achieve this. Features in CoovaAAA allow you to set data limits for a month or smaller periods such as weeks, days or hours.
Suggested Sites
While the following sites are available to the general public and are considered by the authors of this site to be safe for families, especially children, reliance you place on the following sites is strictly at your own risk.
- http://www.cybersmartkids.com.au will help you and your family to find out how to be cybersmart and use the internet safely. It's a young person's guide to smart 'net surfing, chatting and emailing.
- http://schools-wikipedia.org/ is the 2007 Wikipedia DVD Selection. It is a free, hand-checked, non-commercial selection from Wikipedia, targeted around the UK National Curriculum and useful for much of the English speaking world.
- http://www.kidspot.com.au/ Kidspot Australia is all about simplifying the journey that is parenting. Launched in 2005, Kidspot started as a directory of maternity, baby, and kid related equipment, toys, clothing, travel, fun, activities, sports, and related trappings.
- http://www.kids-online.net/ Created and maintained by Tommy Michael Barnard and his young (all under 15 years of age) board of directors.
- http://pbskids.org/ is a site created by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), whish is a non-profit public broadcasting television service in the United States.
- http://pbskids.org/go/ is pbskids for older kids.
- http://www.activitytv.com/ Programming on this site is intended for you to participate with your children in all of the activities. Some of the activities require the use of "real world" materials (e.g. stuff that can make a mess etc.) that require adult supervision.
- http://www.uptoten.com/ "#1 independent kids site in the world", has been building prize-winning early-learning games and activities since 1999.