Internet safety for children

While the Internet is a wonderful resource for learning, it is also rife with perils for children, ranging from inappropriate content to cyber-stalkers lurking in chat rooms.

Due to the number of questions we have received and answered on this topic, we have created this FAQ to address some of the basics of increasing the safety of your children on the Internet.

Education and supervision are essential

In our opinion, the two most under-appreciated and under-utilized techniques for ensuring "safe surfing" and "safe computing" in general are:

• Educating children to the problems and perils, so they know what to avoid and what to look out for.
• Parental supervision of a child's activities on the Internet including Web surfing, downloading, and participation in chat rooms.

No software will ever substitute for these actions. This is no different than when children first obtain a driver's license: education and supervision are the best proactive measures.

Internet perils are a serious problem for parents today, but like drinking, drugs, and other societal dangers we believe education and parental involvement are the best defenses.

Software solutions

Parental controls in Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

Mac® OS X 10.4 Tiger™ provides a broad range of Parental Controls to increase the safety of children using the Internet. These include:

Safe lists, aka white lists, for: Correspondents in Mail. AIM Buddies in iChat. Web sites in Safari™. Applications in Finder™. Parental pre-approval required to send or receive e-mail from off-list addressees in Mail. Restricting access to an unspecified black list of words in Dictionary. Simple Finder. Restricting a range of other activities.

We have yet to thoroughly test the robustness of the new Parental Controls, but we are impressed with the range of capabilities provided. While a computer-savvy child that knows an Admin account password on their Mac could easily defeat these controls, we are satisfied with the results of our initial tests.

There are two areas where we would suggest further improvement under the general topic of parental controls:

• It is possible for a child using iTunes® to access Internet radio stations with explicit content. One can disable Internet radio, as well as restrict access to explicit content on the iTunes Music Store using iTunes own parental controls.
• DVD Player under Mac OS X still lacks the parental controls that were available under Mac OS 9.

The only solution to these issues, at present, is to prohibit a child from using iTunes and DVD Player by restricting access to these applications in Finder.

To familiarize yourself with the Parental Controls in Tiger, search Help for parental controls or click here for a list of related AppleCare® Knowledge Base documents.

Third-party software solutions

Unfortunately, there are few third-party, Mac-based solutions to increase the safety of children using the Internet. Additionally, a computer-savvy child could defeat them. In alphabetical order, some current software offerings in this area include:

• BumperCar by Freeverse Software is an Internet browser based on OmniWeb®. Designed for both young children and teens, it provides a wide range of parental controls and content filtering. Its Whitelists of child-safe and teen-safe sites are unique features. A free trial is available.
• DG Complete by Dave Lopata is a freely-available Mac OS X implementation of the open source content-filtering system known as DansGuardian.
• GURL Watcher by Quicomm is an inexpensive, commercial package for URL monitoring and "application checking," the latter permitting parents to set time and usage limits on activities such as Internet chat and game play.
• Intego Content Barrier claims to provide a variety of parental-control features for safer Internet use. However, a recent review of the Microsoft® Windows® version of Content Barrier revealed a variety of shortcomings. We cannot say if the Mac version suffers these same shortcomings as we have not tested this product. A 30-day free trial version can be obtained by submitting an Intego Free Trial Form or downloading the trial version from this Apple® downloads page.
• KidsBrowser by app4mac Software is a promising new offering: a Safari-based Web browser, designed specifically for children, with a variety of parental controls. It employs a unique, full-screen approach and prevents downloading. A free trial is available.
• KidsGoGoGo X provides powerful, user-specific content filtering for web browsers, iTunes, and RSS readers under Mac OS X. It also includes features for monitoring and restricting user activity.
• KidzMail, recommended to us by a reader of this FAQ, is an e-mail client for children that employs a parentally-controlled address book.
• Mac Minder by Luma Code provides both parental controls and facilities for tracking your child's use of specific applications, such as games, chat, and Web browsers.
• VicomSoft® InterGate offers a solution under a multi-user license that, due to its scope and complexity, appears more suitable for schools and similar institutions rather than the home user.

If you are aware of other solutions we should list in this FAQ, please send feedback.

Additional thoughts

• The U.S. Government has established the FirstGov for Kids Web site. Links from this site are considered "child safe" with respect to content. Making FirstGov for Kids the Home page of your child's Web browser may be a good start.
• Search engines often return inappropriate content masquerading as valid results. If your children use Google®, you can implement a Google preference on their Mac OS X accounts to help prevent inappropriate content from appearing in search results, as follows:
  • Log in to the child's account and open their Web browser.
  • Point the browser to Google.
  • On the Google home page, select Preferences.
  • Under SafeSearch Filtering, select "Use strict filtering."
  • Click "Save Preferences."
• Google preferences are saved in a browser Cookie: if Cookies are cleaned, this preference will be lost.
• Other search engines may provide similar features. Consult the preferences or Help information provided by the search engine for details.
• Both Mac OS X 10.3 Panther™ and Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar provide features for restricting non-Admin user access to specific functions and applications, as well as enabling Simple Finder, which provides a simplified view of the desktop appropriate for children.
• An introduction to these features can be found in the AppleCare® Knowledge Base document. "Mac OS X: How to manage user access to applications, system preferences, and disc burning via Capabilities, Limitations, or Parental Controls."
• Additional information on Simple Finder can be found by searching Mac Help (Finder > Help > Mac Help), or by reviewing the AppleCare Knowledge Base documents related to Simple Finder under Panther or Jaguar.

Related Links

• The following Web sites, in alphabetical order, provide useful information for both parents and children concerning Internet Safety:
  • BlogSafety.
  • CyberAngels.
  • GetNetWise.
  • National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
  • NetSmartz.
  • SafeKids.com.
  • SafeTeens.com.
  • U.S. Department of Education, Internet Safety.
  • Wired Safety.
• "A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety" is an important FBI publication describing warning signs that your child may be at risk online. We consider this a must-read.
• Apple provides a comprehensive directory of Mac-compatible games and educational software on their Kids and Learning page.
• Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware FAQ.