Parental Controls for Mac, PC, and Other Devices

Are your kids safe online? According to recent statistics,  the average age in which children are first exposed to Internet pornography is 11 years old. 90% of children ages 8-16 have admitted to viewing porn online, MOST of which was viewed while doing homework. Further, 89% of sexual solicitation of youth is made in chat rooms, and nearly 45% of children 7-17 have stated they would freely give out their home or email addresses.

Talking with your children about these frightening statistics in relation to their online activity is a crucial yet preliminary step to protecting their well being. Parental Control settings are an important next step, but setting them up properly can be confusing.  Outlined here are descriptions and steps of various settings, tools, and apps that can be used to further protect your children.

Mac

In about ten minutes, parental controls can be easily set up on your Mac computer. Before getting started, make sure you are using the newest version of OS X, and are logged on as the administrative account.

The following four (4) steps will launch your parental controls:

1. Select and open "System Preferences"
2.  Within the 'System' section of System Preferences, select and open the icon labeled 'Parental Controls'
3. Once the Parental Controls window has opened click the lock icon located in the bottom left-hand corner. Here you will be asked to provide the administrator user name and password.
4. Enter your administrator name and password and click OK!

Once launched, you can begin to peruse the tabs and customize accordingly!

iPad/iPhone/iTouch

iPad, iPhone, and iTouch devices are incredibly similar and share the same parental control set-up. "Restrictions" (Parental Controls) can be enabled and adjusted via Settings > General > Restrictions.

When first opening Restrictions, you should be asked to enter a passcode that will then be required to make any changes to your restriction settings. You will then be able to customize restrictions regarding Safari, Camera/Facetime, iTunes, Apps, and Siri (including disabling explicit language). You can also prevent access to various music/podcasts, movies, TV shows, apps, and purchases.

PC

Parental Controls in Windows 7 allow you to not only control the content in which your children can access, but also the times of day the computer is available to them. Settings for all of these controls are located in under User Control on your child's account.

First open the Control Panel. Beneath User Accounts, select Set Up Parental Controls. This will open a listing of all accounts on the computer and asks that you choose one to customize at a time.

If you want to be in even more control, you should test out other available apps, such as…

One of our favorites, CyberPatrol Parental Control, blocks access to questionable sites beyond pornography, restricting access to sites containing violence or hate speeches.  It even allows parents to create multiple profiles that can be customized to suite different age groups.  Download Here

For $40, Net Nanny will filter the internet, block pornography, monitor social media and instant messaging, masks profanity and offers time management. Download Here

Sources: http://www.parental-control-software-top5.com/internet-statistics.html ; http://macs.about.com/od/switchersnewusers/ss/parentalcontrol.html; http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4213; http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-change-parental-control-settings-in-windows.html;