Are there any parental controls in Windows XP ? Sure there are. And if you're worried about the online safety of your children you can find out how to use them here.
The Content Advisor in Internet Explorer is one way to protect your family's online safety. That is if you use Internet Explorer to go on the internet of course. Most other browsers offer their own mechanism to deal with internet safety.
The following steps will enable the content advisor in Internet Explorer.
-- Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Internet Options"
-- In the Internet Options dialog, click on the "Content" tab and then click the "Enable" button. This opens up the Content Advisor properties window. In this window, click each category and use the slider to set the desired level.
-- You will also notice the "Approved Sites" tab. It allows you to add sites manually and specify if you want the site to be always blocked or always allowed.
-- The "General" tab lets you specify if websites without rating system should be blocked or not. You can also set a supervisor password and find rating systems in the "General" tab. Choose a secure password, write it down and store it in a safe place.
-- You will need this password whenever someone needs access to restricted content and whenever you need to change or disable the Content Advisor.
In addition to the Content Advisor in Internet Explorer you can also set parental controls in Windows XP by modifying the the windows hosts file. It is located in the C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC directory.
To view the contents of this file, browse to the location of the file and double click on it. You will be asked whether you want to search the internet for a program to open the file or if you wish to choose from a list. Choose the list option and open the file with Notepad. You can now view all of the websites that are being blocked.
To manually block a site, go to the bottom of the file and on a new line type “127.0.0.1 siteyouwanttoblock.com” without using quotes. This will block siteyouwanttoblock.com. Repeat the process for any other sites you wish to block, and then save the file by going to File>Save.
And of course, it will be better if you install some software to help parental control. If you want to filter what can and can NOT be seen on the Internet, you can use
. Schools and government office use it… and its free. The easiest method is to use professional
to block unwanted websites and programs on your computer. There are also web filter for Mac OS X you can use
software.
Here are a few additional recommendations :
-- Install your home computer in the living room, where you can walk by from time to time. Try not to make your teenager feel like you are spying on him / her though.
-- Try to show some interest in what your child is doing on the internet. Talk about the fun stuff, so that they know that it's o.k. to talk about it.
-- Make sure they understand not to send their name or address over the internet to someone they have never seen in real life.
-- You can find a lot of "free" stuff on the internet. Often you only need to provide your email address to get the goodies. Consider opening a separate hotmail account, used for internet sites. That makes it a lot harder for spammers to abuse your private email address.
-- Use a nickname or only a first name for chat or instant messaging.
-- Don't enter phone information in a chat profile.
Windows XP how-to: the hidden parental control
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