Four Steps to Protecting Your Family Online
Author: Legrand Bagley

Pornography marketers will make at least two new Websites while you read this message. That’s thousands every day. The more sites they can make, the more traffic they get, and the more money they make. It doesn’t matter if you, your spouse, or kids are looking for them or not. They’re looking for you- and everyone they can get.

Many Americans accidentally stumble onto pornographic material while online. A recent story at CNN (see www.cnn.com for details) tells how a man was arrested for redirecting unsuspecting victims to one of over 3,000 pornographic Websites.

He used common misspellings for sites like Disney, Britney Spears, or Barney, so that people looking for those sites would find pornography instead.

Why would a pornography marketer go after people that aren’t looking for pornography? Because they can make more money by constantly finding new targets and selling to them. Young teenagers and kids are naturally curious, are developing physically, and are more likely to be addicted to pornography later in life if they are exposed to it while they’re young.

This is one of the largest industries online, and it continues to grow rapidly. You don’t have to throw out your computer to keep your home safe from Internet filth. But you do need to follow a few precautions.

1. Keep your email safe.
Many email services filter out emails you don’t want before you see them- check in with whatever you use now to see if they offer this. Another way to keep your email safe is to use two addresses, one for family and friends and one for everyone else. Guard your private email address closely. Use your public email address everywhere else. If it starts to get a lot of unwanted emails, stop using it and make a new one.

2. Be active in your family’s Internet choices and make rules.
Make sure your children know that they shouldn’t give out personal information to strangers through email or while chatting. Limit ‘alone’ computer time for everyone, especially at night. Talk about what sites your family visits.

3. Delete file-sharing programs.
You’ve probably heard of Napster, Kazaa, Morpheus, and a dozen other programs used to trade music on the Internet. These programs are also used to trade pornographic pictures and movies. They can find and download pornography more efficiently than any Website, and can be accessed even if you use a filter or a filtered Internet service provider. You might want to get rid of these anyway because the music industry has started suing individual users of these programs who download pirated music files.

4. Choose an advanced Internet filter.
The problem with many Internet filters is that there are so many new sites every day. Some filters just block out certain keywords, like “xxx”. The problem with this is, it blocks out sites that have nothing to do with pornography. It also doesn’t block out sites that are in different languages or that may not use certain keywords.

Choose a filter that updates dynamically or automatically, so it blocks out the thousands of new sites set up every day. Another key component is to choose a filter that blocks more than just pornographic Websites. For example, blocking out file-sharing sites once you delete file-sharing programs from your computer will help keep your computer safe. Other categories you might want to block: alternative lifestyle, dating sites, lingerie, illegal activities (like how to make bombs, etc.) and crude or obscene sites.

Making your computer safe from Internet filth is easy.
It only takes a little bit of up-front effort to prevent a lot of problems that can occur down the road.







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LeGrand Bagley works as a consultant for Freedom Filter, a company dedicated to protecting families from online dangers and filth. Try it, free at www.freedomfilter.com

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