Parental Controls: Do we need them?

 

Remember the time, when as a child you cried your lungs out to get that piece of candy from your parents. As grown-ups we may find this funny, but back then when we were children there are several such incidents where our parents have guided us towards making the right choice sometimes by love and sometimes by mild scolding. In the formative years, this parental control plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of the children and guiding them towards becoming responsible adults. From television channels to internet messages, a dose of parental control is needed to keep check on the type of exposure our children get. After all, this level of exposure will go miles in shaping the future of our society.

But another important thing to bear in mind is that the parental controls need to be imposed in a subtle manner without directly opposing the child's curiosity. In case, you vehemently oppose this curiosity, you could end up initiating a repulsive behavior within the children. Imposing parental control in simple terms is deciding the filtering parameters for your computer. This ensures that even in your absence your children are able to view data that you feel is safe for them to see. Now that we have established the importance of parental controls on the internet medium, we will move on to explore a few methods using which parents can keep check of their children's internet activity.

The first and foremost important thing is too install a router for all your internet activity. You can easily decide the filter specifications on one router and implement it into the entire house. In fact, router settings come in handy in the present scenario when children are active on smart phones and laptops. You can also protect your systems against malware attacks along with keeping an eye on the programs that your little one follows.

Apart from the router, parental controls can be implemented through the control panel available in your operating system. Once you set the specifications for the parental control, you will be able to keep a tab on the content your kid is viewing, the sites they visit and even the games they view. There are also several software programs available in the markets that help serve the purpose of parental control. Being totally web based programs; all you need to do is install this software in the system you wish to monitor.

Usually parental control can be self installed but you can also seek help from computer professionals if you want further specifications in the type of control. But before you implement any type of parental control, it is very important to talk to your child and explain to them the aftereffects of the limitless data available on the internet. After all, suppressing their curiosity never helps, does it? You need to answer their questions before else they will see the parental control as an invasion of their privacy and respond negatively.
 

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