Freedom can be disturbing.
On a whim, out of pure curiosity, we typed the word "p o r n" into a Google search. We wanted to know what our kids and their friends could see on the internet if they became curious. To our astonishment, we found several websites came up with freely available content that made us personally uncomfortable; not to mention the realization that our children could easily view this disturbing content. And that's not how I want my children to learn about the birds and the bees.

There are three ways to attack this problem. First, you can restrict access to the internet so that it's constantly supervised. Parental supervision is always the best method of protection. But in today's society with working parents and increasingly busy schedules, it's tough to watch your kids at all times. And when they're at a friends' home, if the friend's parents aren't on the same page, this method is useless.

Secondly, you can attempt to block all the questionable content. There are some very good programs that act as a parental control. Although Windows XP parental controls are ridiculously cumbersome and restrictive, Windows Vista has a useful tool that will allow you to block certain keywords and websites. The problem with this type of method is that the offending websites have become very good at recognizing what terms are being flagged, and they learn how to navigate to avoid those terms so they can still deliver their nasty content under the radar. And again, all bets are off once your child is at another PC at his or her friend's home.

Finally, you can do what we do. Hope that you've built that strong foundation of trust and limits, and monitor what's going on once in a while just to make sure.

Better safe than sorry.
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