Parental Control

[Zhen Zeng]

I'd like to start a thread related to parental control.

It hit me when my 4-year-old son Phillip and his 6-year-old friend Ethan opened up a browser, went to Google.com, and then searched their favorite destination Power Rangers site. What if I was not around and they bumped into some inappropriate sites? What if they stumbled upon some sex predators hidden in some online chat rooms? It sent chills down my spine.

If you have anything that you want to add to this thread, please feel free.

[Zhen Zeng]

I saw this article about Glubble, a parental control plugin for FireFox.

"Glubble transforms Firefox into a locked down environment where kids can only surf approved sites, while parents can easily log into a restriction-free account for normal web surfing. Glubble also re-skins Firefox with a simple and appealing kid-friendly look while logged into a child account."

What's more interesting was the #1 comment of this article.

"Most children know more about the web when they are 9-10 than the average parent. I would not be surprised if we will see add-ons that enable children to control what their parents see when they browse. and most parents wont have a clue that the child is controlling the browser. Watch out parents!!! Maybe we should invest in educating our children instead of cultivating the false hope that we can protect them from the web."

[Lili Wu]

I think I'll try to limit my sons' exposure to TV and computer as much as possible, and instead, go out to play sports. Hope they will agree with me. :D