by Felicia Jeffries

Created on: July 31, 2008

Monitoring your child's internet sounds like a piece of cake, but it can turn into something that is a very stategious task. How so? Many parents have to work. They may have children that are home during these work hours. There are other parents who want to give their children "privacy," knowing they should monitor the usage of time on the web, but avoid confrontation.

With busy schedules and a no confrontation type setting, how would parents go about monitoring their child's time on the internet?

First, With so much information on the world wide web, internet surfing can be endless, with minimal time left for eating and sleeping. Parents should have the a family computer located in a major room of the house such as the family room, game room, or living room. This can help parents to stay aware of how much time is being spent on the computer.

Second, this may sound obsurd, but it can be very helpful. Use a timer when it comes to the computer. Give your child a set time to be on the computer if it is just surfing for fun. Just as a parent would set a timer to cook, set the timer to how much time should be spent on the internet.

Third. Sometimes children have school work that has to be done by use of the internet. The parents should sit down with the child in order to determine when the deadline is for the particular project, how extensive the project is, and what web sites will be used. This will help determine how much time should be devoted each day to surfing the web. This also promotes balance in the chlid.

Fourth. Give a child a reward for spending a wise amount of time on the internet. When you sit down to explain to a child the importance of time and how the internet can suck up valuable time, the child will listen. It may not start off coming together, but in time with the parent's and child's cooperation, things will run much smoother.

Fifth. If parents do not have time to monitor the child's time on the internet, maybe some pass words have to be put on the computer that only parents know. This will prevent the child from being on the computer surfing all day or all night, when the parents are not around. Therefore, when the parents do come home, they can enter the password, and the child can proceed to use the internet.

This is a safety precaution also. There are so many internet pedophiles, and internet bullies, that a parent can never be too safe. For the internet can become like a dangerous city that you take you child to and drop off.

Also, parents can check the browser history to check the different websites that are being visited each time the internet is used. Downloads should be checked also. But the main issue here is monitoring the time being spent on the internet not monitoring internet usage itself.

These are some wonderful tips that parents can use. With a little discipline from both parties, parents can succeed in achieving balanced time spent surfing the web.

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