Many computer users are not aware of the fact that Internet Explorer comes with a built in Internet content filter. This tool is designed to block your children's access to sites, which may be inappropriate. The, "Family Online Safety Institute" supports the utility. FOSI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to help protect children from inappropriate websites.

I have had a lot of success with this free tool and I find it to be very affective in preventing my children from accessing sites and chat services that I deem inappropriate. However, it can be a bit annoying at first because you will have to type in your password for just about every site your children visit. The trick is that every time you have to enter your password, add that site to your list of allowed sites. That way you only have to worry about it once.

It takes a bit of work to set this service up, but the benefits far outweigh any sense of inconvenience you may feel. The utility has come a long way since Internet Explorer 6, and has added some extra controls to help parents keep their children safe on the Internet. The settings range all the way from nudity and bad language to depictions of drinking and gambling. There is even a setting for websites that just simply set a bad example for kids.

There is one drawback however, and that is that this utility does depend upon the website owners themselves to input the rating code on their websites. Often the webmasters of these sites generally do not add content rating code, but that is no problem because there is a setting for that as well. However, there are those unscrupulous webmasters that will purposefully give their site a clean rating when it is not. Therefore, no matter what we parents do, we must always be diligent in monitoring our children's online experience.

Here are the steps to setup your Content Advisor in Internet Explorer 7 as well as version 6.

1) Click "Start" then open "Control Panel"

2) Click on "Network and Internet Connections"

3) At the bottom under icons choose "Internet Options"

4) At the top, choose the "Content Tab"

5) Under Content Advisor choose "Enable"

6) In the list shown, choose the content key that you wish to change and move the slider to the desired position.

7) Next go ahead and click the "Approved Sites" tab at the top. In order to save yourself some time and trouble, go ahead and enter in as many safe sites that you wish your children to access.

8) Next click on the "General" tab at the top. Make sure that the "Supervisor can type a password" box is checked.

9) You may check the "Users can view websites that has no rating" box, however I do not advise it. If you leave it unchecked, you increase the efficiency of this tool exponentially.

10) Next, you want to click on the "Create Password" button in the middle. This is where you will create your password, which you will enter to view particular sites and will also be used when you want to edit any settings to your filter.

11) When you have your desired settings go ahead and save your settings by clicking the "Apply" button at the bottom.

One important note is to make sure that you do not lose or forget your password, so write it down and keep it safe. I hope this tutorial helps you in helping to make your Internet experience a pleasant one. It is important that we are realize that the Internet is a very big place and it is up to us to make sure our children do not get lost in it.

Sources

Website: FOSI
http://www.fosi.org/

Learn more about this author, Nicholos Gene Poma B.S..
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