Hello everyone,
Two nights ago, I allowed my 9 year old son to go on the internet to do some research for his school project. He went on google, and typed in some search words related to his topic of interest, but to my horror I found that he unintentionally came upon an innocent looking site that turned out to contain adult content (that was shown as part of the google search results). Has anybody else have had this happen to them?
I have also been caught out in the past accidentally seeing offensive content (while at work!!) when looking for things on google, especially when I search for "dating" related material - only to be shown a barrage of adult related "dating" stuff. In one case, I got caught out by my boss (which took a lot of explaining on my behalf). I would never search the internet again without some sort of filtered search engine.
To prevent this from happening to others, I want to share a decent website that I have found, and have set as my homepage which I would like to recommend (if i may).
The website at www.safe-search-engine.com allows you to use the full power of google whilst always filtering out adult/offensive material. I now use this as the homepage for both my home computer, as well as in the office for safety.
|
Anne
Posts:
507
Registered:
6/26/06
|
|
(5 of 5)
Re: Dont let this happen to you at home or in the office...
Sep 18, 2006 2:46 PM
|
|
Thanks, Chantra. That's a great one - leading by example is usually a lot more effective! As for the concept of "control," it seems to me that - on the Internet, anyway - control/government/protection is becoming more a collective or participatory thing, just as the Web is - as in child protection being a joint effort by parents and kids at the micro/household level and by all interested parties (kids, parents, educators, law enforcement, advocates, and policymakers) at the societal level. Is anybody else seeing this too? I hope I'm right, but even if I am, I know this consensus-oriented approach takes time. All best,
Anne
BlogSafety.com co-director
|
|
|
Chantra
Posts:
5
From:
oklahoma
Registered:
9/16/06
|
|
(4 of 5)
Re: Dont let this happen to you at home or in the office...
Sep 18, 2006 2:03 PM
|
|
I always keep my google filters turned up. You don't want to know what you can wind up by doing a search for "white house," very inappropriate for the classroom let me tell you :D. Also in my home we have a rule, there is never internet connection to any private room. I can not have privacy on the net by going to my room, and neither can my kids. I feel this is effective because its fair and a rule applied evenly to adults as well as children, which keeps the resentment down. If I want to use the computer to do something that I dont want my kids to see, like shop for Christmas presents, then I can just wait till they are in bed. I've never found the need for any other controls.
|
|
|
Anne
Posts:
507
Registered:
6/26/06
|
|
(3 of 5)
Re: Dont let this happen to you at home or in the office...
Sep 18, 2006 9:03 AM
|
I'd like to add my support to Rasma's post. We have a rule in our house that (just to keep it simple and clear) only one search engine is used to search the Web and that its filter feature is always on. Many search engines offer filtering. With Google, just click on Preferences to the right of the search box, as Rasma said; then on the Preferences page go down to the SafeSearch Filtering option and choose moderate or strict; then be sure to click "Save Preferences" in the bottom right-hand corner. The setting will stay that way on that computer whenever you use Google, even after the computer has been turned off, until that Preference is changed (which is why you need a rule about not changing Prefs to back up the tech tool). On the computers our kids use, strict filtering is the pref - it can always be turned off (when a parent's asked) if legitimate sites are being blocked in the research process, then turned back on.
We really appreciate this tech tool. It's actually the only filtering we use at our house. But we also have age-appropriate rules. For example, our 9-year-old doesn't use the Web without us in the room (our teenager doesn't need filtering or any other tech parental control). So far so good. 
Anne
BlogSafety.com co-director |
|
|
Rasma
Posts:
40
From:
Washington
Registered:
9/14/06
|
|
(2 of 5)
Re: Dont let this happen to you at home or in the office...
Sep 18, 2006 8:12 AM
|
|
I ran into this problem in sixth grade, I was doing a report on Aberham Lincon and I think we were looking for pictures of Aberham Lincon on google, and we came up with a bunch of adult oriented sites because of the key word pictures.
But one sugestion, do the reaserch into this at the libary or at home no use getting into trouble with your boss for cyber slacking. But one thing that may help with google is going into the prefrences for it and turning up the filtering option. But other then useing diffrent engines or turing up filtering I do not see what else people can do but monitor your kids online, I do have to say when I was young I liked haveing perants even just sit with me and watch me work to help steer me in the right direction
--
-Rasma
|
|
|
theshining
Posts:
1
Registered:
9/15/06
|
|
(1 of 5)
Dont let this happen to you at home or in the office...
Sep 18, 2006 4:44 AM
|
Hello everyone,
Two nights ago, I allowed my 9 year old son to go on the internet to do some research for his school project. He went on google, and typed in some search words related to his topic of interest, but to my horror I found that he unintentionally came upon an innocent looking site that turned out to contain adult content (that was shown as part of the google search results). Has anybody else have had this happen to them?
I have also been caught out in the past accidentally seeing offensive content (while at work!!) when looking for things on google, especially when I search for "dating" related material - only to be shown a barrage of adult related "dating" stuff. In one case, I got caught out by my boss (which took a lot of explaining on my behalf). I would never search the internet again without some sort of filtered search engine.
To prevent this from happening to others, I want to share a decent website that I have found, and have set as my homepage which I would like to recommend (if i may).
The website at www.safe-search-engine.com allows you to use the full power of google whilst always filtering out adult/offensive material. I now use this as the homepage for both my home computer, as well as in the office for safety. |
|
|
|
|
