One of the most important areas where we’re asking our young people to be wise beyond their years, is in the online world. There’s an endless stream of pitfalls that can befall a child or youth without having to go too far out of their way. For that reason, there are a number of different ways to improve the security of your internet device to block unwanted content or to keep you accountable in your web browsing. This is an ever changing market, however a space that we must understand if we are to keep ourselves safe and equip our young people and parents through this minefield!
Firstly, lets define some key terms: Internet filtering software is designed to limit access to content available online, including pornography, violence, language, and other material deemed questionable by the software developers.
Internet accountability software is designed to keep you accountable for your online activity by sending emails or text messages to people you have previously chosen if you access material that you have agreed not to, then it is their role to keep you accountable.
There are many ways in which you can make your computer browsing environment more secure, some of these you already have at your disposal through settings in your current PC:
Web Browser Controls
There are controls within each web browser that allow blocking of individual sites and content. This is the directions for controlling content with Internet Explorer: http://www.wikihow.com/Restrict-Web-Browsing-Using-Internet-Explorer
Search Engine Controls
Individual search engines also have ways to filter out unwanted content. Google does it through their ‘Safe Search’ facility that allows content that they deem as sexually inappropriate, to be turned off. http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/familysafety/tools/ However after brief testing, this doesn’t seem very effective with image searching.
YouTube also has a filtering option that locks out unwanted content at the bottom of the browser window.
The problem with search engine controls is that they seem to be dependent on people reporting abusive images and content and so might not be the best solution. However they can play an important part of the solution alongside of other blocking tools.
Operating System Controls
Operating systems are also starting to develop ways in which you can make your internet connections more secure from unwanted content. Windows 7 has their Family Safety Filter that requires you to install their free Live add on software first, but then provides a range of options including: internet filtering, limiting time on the computer, logging all activity and getting updates of child’s usage emailed to parents. This looks to be a very useful tool, it requires the administrator to set up accounts for each user, so might require a change of the way families work. This isn’t a good solution for personal protection as you are likely the computer’s administrator.
Accountability Software
One of the sites that has spoken the loudest to the Christian audience is XXXChurch who are unashamedly open about the pitfalls of pornography in our society and especially within the church. They have developed a free accountability tool called X3Watch www.x3watch.com. A person takes the responsibility of downloading the software onto their computer and gets in contact with an accountability partner who is emailed (texted in the Pro version + filters) weekly the sites of questionable content that have been visited.
Filtering Software
There are a number of these on the market, each with slight differences and ways that they filter which will of course determine how useful they are to each situation. The main issue being how well they handle clashes in their key word filters, like the word breast could be fine if you’re cooking chicken, researching cancer or feeding babies, but of course, not so good if your 14yr old is doing some personal research for the wrong reasons! The other big problem is with thousands of new web sites starting up each day, if the company doesn’t have the manpower to add new dodgy sites onto their filter blocking software, then it soon becomes obsolete.
The main packages that seem to get the best ranking with online surveys are: Covenant Eyes (www.covenanteyes.com) at $10.49/month or $125.88/year. NetNanny (www.netnanny.com), at $39.95 or $59.95 for 3 computers. Mcafee Safe Eyes 6 (www.internetsafety.com/safeeyes) at $49.95 for 3 computers, K9 Web Protection (www.k9webprotection.com) Free! X3watch Pro (www.x3watch.com) at $7/month or $84/year.
Overall
There are numerous things that need to be considered when looking into all of this as each situation will be different. The amount of security needed is different depending on the capabilities of the user getting around them! The style of accountability will differ and the content to be blocked will differ, especially as children grow into adults, content protection will need to change and perhaps relax. Trust is also a key issue, allowing your teenager to know they’re trusted, next to the wisdom of keeping sin at arm’s length… many times from ourselves!
This article provides help with some of these final questions: http://thinkyouthministry.com/tuesdays-top-5-internet-accountability-software-part-2/
And to add to all of this, the mobile device world is growing and growing and there are limitations to how many of these programs work on mobile devices. This no doubt will be a key area of development in the years ahead, but is systematic to the problem of a fast moving technology and software that has to run fast to keep up!
