Porn is readily available on the Internet to anyone who wants to see it – or does not want to see it. If a child is old enough to click, he is old enough to be exposed to pornography.
The only way to ensure that our children and family are not exposed to porn is to proactively install an application for blocking porn. There is no other way. Agreeing on rules about Internet use is important is every household. But no matter how trusting an environment you have in your home, porn can still sneak in. It can be by accident, it can be friends sending links to videos and websites and it can be curiosity that is very hard to control, no matter how great a kid you have.
Adults are also becoming more susceptible to the temptations of online pornography. So why not just block porn from everyone in the house? There are not too many good arguments for why not to do so.
Little, if anything, is being be done by governments to protect us from exposure to pornography and it has fallen on parents to take responsibility to protect their children and block porn from their computers. Take note that while once, porn consisted of some Playboy magazines in a shoebox in the garage, today it is far more hardcore. The type of content that is available is inappropriate for any audience but equally accessible with no differentiaon being made between a picture of a nude woman and a video of violent sex.
There are good solutions available for blocking out pornography.You can be back in control of what content you allow in your house – the same way no one would bring inappropriate books and magazines into the house, you should be able to stop x-rated
websites from appearing on your computer screens.
Here are 5 key issues to consider in choosing how to block porn:
1. Make sure the porn blocker is coming from a reliable software vendor. When you install any software on your computer, you are exposing yourself, your data and your computer security. Try to see if the product has been reviewed by a reliable
third party like CNET or ZDNet.
2. Use the software before buying it. If they do not offer a free trial, think twice.
3. Check the porn filter’s accuracy. You don’t want it to block news and sports. Test accuracy when you try the free
trial. But note – even the best filters are not 100% accurate.
4. A good porn filter will block porn if you install it and set it up correctly. Make sure it is easy enough for you to
understand and use. If you have questions, check if their customer support provides answers.
5. More than blocking porn. You are likely interested in blocking more than pornography. A good web filter includes a variety of content categories that can be filtered and it should do more than filter Internet content. Check if the solution manages the time spent online, whether the filter can be customized using keywords, if individual profiles can be set for
each user, and if the password protection mechanism is strong.