Internet 101: Children and the Internet

Internet 101: Children and the Internet
by
Robin Hall

While I am not a parent, in my 9 years online, doing a daily Internet 101 Forum for some months on Firetalk and an occassional one on Paltalk, the subject of child safety often comes to mind. The search engines of today are VERY powerful. Topics and images can be accessed that children should not see.

Adults should have access to all sites without censorship. Children should not. That is my view.

Parents. The best way to monitor your child's time online is to be with them. The Internet is NOT TV where you can block certain channels. There is NO current software that works perfectly to prevent sites from being accessed. You are the monitor, the censor for your children. PERIOD.

That said, with preparation, you and your child can have endless fun, find wonderful photos to view and share, do school work research and learn about everything from photography to languages and so much more.

Now take the easy way for your research into online safety. Go to Google, input just what you want, explore that and then set up a folder of nice searchengines for your child. Later set up another folder of sites visited and enjoyed and use the Internet WITH your child.

So, click here Google type in: childrens search engines and look at as many as you want then save the ones you like. The first link I found is this excellent article by Danny Sullivan, one of the most respected names in the professional search engine business:
Children's Search Engines

I will add another choice here that looks VERY nice:
Quintura for Kids
This is a fine start. Don't be intimidated at the breadth of the Internet. It takes time and patience to find what you want among the 80+ million websites and 400,000+ terabytes of information. Google alone checks / spiders over 8 billion pages, at least.

Most of my online search tips will be for adults. Parents can use them to find what they want and want to share with their children.

Learn to use Google . Input words like this, no caps needed: topic, then extra words. Say you want to find online encyclopedias. The query you put in the search box will simply look like this: " encyclopedias online "or " encyclopedia " . Its that simple.

Well, good luck with the online experience with your children. Have fun and be patient. Using the Internet is easy. Just type, click and learn...