Internet filters block porn, but not savvy kids
'Nannyware' can help, but the best parental control is still a parent, experts say.
from the April 11, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 4
"A lot of parents were concerned with the amount of time their kids were spending online and wanted a way to monitor and control that," says Mr. Kenny.
Safe Eyes and several other content-control packages now offer parents the ability to limit their children's Web time.
Windows Vista lets parents decide when their kids can use the computer. Working parents whose child spends part of the day home alone might set their child's account to allow computer access only from 5:30 p.m. to bedtime, for instance.
Still, a number of skeptics point out that, even with recent improvements, filters are far from perfect, can block valuable information, and pose little obstacle to a determined and tech-savvy child.
"The truth is that lots of parents get by without using any [Internet filter] at all, and most of them seem to be happy with that decision," says Bennett Haselton, founder of Peacefire, an "anticensorship" Internet organization that creates simple ways for blocked users to bypass content filters. Mr. Haselton says teenagers are mature enough to handle an unfiltered Internet. "If you use blocking software, be aware that there are sites out there like Peacefire that will make it pretty easy for [kids] to get around it."
Leo Carey, a computer-networking teacher at Boston Latin Academy, says many of his students use proxy servers like those created by Haselton to bypass the public high school's filter. "Rather than going overboard trying to block things, the real strategy is to educate them about the inappropriateness of what they're doing and why it's inappropriate," says Mr. Carey. "They're really reasonable about that kind of stuff."
"I don't really think you can block it all out," says Frank Curiel, a Costa Mesa, Calif., father who doesn't restrict his 15-year-old son's Internet access. "Basically what we do is we trust [our son], and we set up guidelines, like when he's working on his computer, his door is open."
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