Raising children today is much different that it was ten years ago. The threats may be the same, but now they have direct access to your children that was not available before. There are many benefits to open communication with all people across our planet - ideas are free flowing, research is shared, etc. However, with this power, unfortunately, exposure to adult and violent content is readily available, as well as open access for online predators. Online pornography is a very lucrative business. This means that they use aggressive means of advertisements - your child may not intend to access this information, however, advertisements, pop-up messages, etc. may appears even when looking at non-pornographic information. More troubling are the sexual predators - they spend a lot of time and effort to disguise their actions as harmless.

There are warning signs that can trigger thoughts that perhaps you should monitor your children's online activity more closely:

• Sudden and excessive time on the internet;
• Using the internet in later hours;
• Chat Rooms - these are the playground for sexual predators
• Finding pornography on your computer - this could have been sent by sexual predators
• You may notice long distance phone calls to people you don't know.

Proactive Measures

The concept of what you need to do is simple; however, with the internet - you just need to learn the new tool set that is available to you to be a responsible parent. The concept - be involved with what your kids are doing; speak to them about the dangers. What may seem innocent to them may turn out to be anything but. Just like you want to meet your children's friends before they spend a night going to dinner and movies, the same goes for online. Ask them about chat rooms; about their friends online, do they meet them; where are they from, etc. We've covered the basis, now you need to understand what tools you have available so you can enforce these principles. When going out, you physically see you child leave the house; with the internet it is not the case.

Using Monitoring Software and Parental Control Software is a great way to help you control internet usage.

Your objective as a parent is to encourage internet usage since it will continue to be valuable technology and skill set to be used in their future adult lives, however, at the same time monitor that the content is suitable for their age.

Selecting a Good Monitoring software is tricky since there are so many vendors trying to offer anything to a worried parent. Good software will provide main features:

1. Remote Access - monitor your children's activity from a different computer in real-time;
2. Block Website - block adult and violent content;
3. Easy to Use - quick installation, online help, responsive customer support
4. Invisible - monitor without children are aware (this is optional - you may, of course, tell your children that you are monitoring their internet usage)

More Tips available at