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No one would deny protecting children starts with a healthy dose of love and a lot of education. From day one, a parent protects a child from strangers, from bad language, and from potential harmful material such as fire or knives. One of the devices in a child's life with the potential for causing harm is none other than the home computer. The Internet can teach a child concepts, language, or values a parent would not want the child to learn. Naturally supervision is a must, but a parent cannot always be there. How then does a parent protect a child from information and images available on the internet, or the predators or stalkers that prowl there? Parental filtering has taken main stage not only in the classroom and home environment, but with broadband service providers who are taking it extremely seriously. Not all broadband service providers offer parental filtering as part of their software package, but there are other options should you choose to stay with your broadband service provider and parent filtering is not available. Of course, as a parent you are responsible for insuring your child(ren) or those children with access to your Internet and computer are monitored and protected from potentially harm. How do the broadband service providers stack up? Eclipse Broadband does not offer special services for parent filtering directly. However, Eclipse Broadband does offer a Netgear modem/router. Netgear offers Trend Micro free for 1-year. The interface to communicate with the parent control is easy to use and easy to understand. Password protection keeps the child from changing the settings, and user logs record attempts at specific keywords or topics.
Limits: Only 12 topics are covered, and the parent is not able to add their own topics as they deem worthy.
BT Total Broadband offers parent filtering via the BT specific router/modem. The interface is easy to understand and accessible through included software or via the instructions. The protection covers e-mail, a wide array of instant messengers, and websites as determined by the parent. The interface does come with an easy to understand help file with the included software, and the information is available via BT Total Broadband's website if the user knows where to look.
Limits: Works well for young children or amateur computer users. The instructions on how to reset to default are too readily available, and easy to follow for children.
AOL Broadband has perhaps one of the most efficient and popular parental filtering capabilities on the Internet. The parent, the admin, and the users (including children) have different logins for the AOL browser with configurable settings for each account. Additionally, children are not able to get the information on resetting connection to default without the admin information adding an extra layer of security between the child and the Internet. AOL Broadband provides a powerful parental filtering system for any parent, and offers an easy to understand format for the amateur.
Limits: AOL Broadband needs to be on all the computers on the network to function properly and restricts other browser usage.
Tiscali Broadband is another popular broadband service provider. Tiscali Broadband does not offer parental filtering software, but does give useful information on how to prepare your computer with Internet access for a child's use. In addition, Tiscali Broadband suggests and promotes Norton Security in place of included filtering software. The information available is easily accessed via Tiscali Broadband's website.
Limits: Offering information is useful, but the information is available widely and readily with a simple search via a preferred search engine.
Finding a good broadband service provider is a relatively easy task, but if there are children involved, high speed and price usually take second place to safety. Depending on what the parent or adult is wanting, a broadband service provider can provide good access to parental filtering keeping your home and children safe. If you are looking for an all purpose, powerful parent filtering broadband service, AOL Broadband offers reliability, cost efficiency, and easy usability for parents. On a side note, when purchasing a broadband service for the parental control features, please ensure the operating system is supported by the broadband service provider. Older operating systems such as Windows 95 and/or Windows ME, or newer operating systems such as Windows Vista are not supported by the broadband service provider.
Staff editor, Broadband Section, July 2007 |
