by M.R.

Created on: August 01, 2009

What parent is not horrified by stories of online predators targeting young children? Parents are constantly looking for ways to give their children the freedom to explore their interests, complete their schoolwork, and connect with friends online while keeping them safe and supervised. That's not an easy task. Enter AOL Parental Controls. Billing their program as "fast, easy, and free," AOL has identified four areas of increased supervision for a safer internet experience: web browsing controls, e-mail and IM controls, online time limits, and activity reports.

To help eliminate a child's exposure to inappropriate web sites, AOL asks parents to select a specific age range (kids 12 and under, young teens from 13-15, or mature teens from 16-17) to correspond to each child's screen name. Then AOL will block sites related to the following subjects based on the child's age: tobacco, alcohol, drugs, violence, weapons, hate, gambling, and pornography. Parents can adjust a child's access to web sites at any time, whether they would like to lift a restriction or ban an approved web site.

Parents can also keep their children's communication safer by ensuring that their children are only able to send and receive instant messages from known screen names by blocking all others and setting the list of approved senders. Parents can decide that children can not instant message at all, or block messages that include files, video, or images. Parents can see the emails that children write or receive as well.

The overall web experience is also carefully monitored by the AOL parental controls. With the online time limit control, parents can adjust the hours that each child can spend online. Not only can the number of hours per day be specified, but each day can have a different time limit. Finally, parents get activity reports detailing all of their children's activity. From the IM's that a child receives to the web sites he or she was blocked from viewing, parents get a carefully prepared report of every communication and web site visited.

Even the most trusted and responsible child can wander into inappropriate areas on the internet if not carefully supervised and instructed. The AOL parental controls help parents create the safest and most secure environment possible for their children. While these controls are not a substitute for a parent's careful monitoring, they are a necessary tool in making sure that children are not confronted with material and strangers that they are not equipped to deal with.

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