If your child is computer savvy and can navigate the Internet, they can literally see anything they want or ask for, and sometimes even things they do not ask for.  It is really important for a parent to police what their children are accessing on the Internet.  Using parental controls of whatever means are tantamount to protecting your child from unauthorized video viewing or being lured into a chat room or to watch something questionable.

Unfortunately there are many pornographic websites enticing under age children onto their sites by using names for their domains that a child could actually look for.  Obviously expecting to maybe find a research site, they are immediately bombarded with pornographic images.  With the correct parental controls, this questionable site would not have been able to be viewed by the child.  If you have allowed your child to have an e-mail address, you can also place a parental control on that, as there are also millions of e-mails with questionable content delivered to e-mails of minors every day, not to mention the viruses that are passed from computer to computer through this route.

As with anything else we do with or for our children, parents must be responsible when setting up a computer for the home.  If you are having the computer set up professionally let the person know that you are interested in keeping children from any questionable sites or sites they do not know.  This can be done for you.  If you are setting up your own computer, again use the computer.  You can search for ways to prevent this information from getting to your child.  It may be that you need a blocker placed on the child’s e-mail account or a warning given before opening any site.  Whatever the case may be, take whatever precautions are necessary to protect your child.  Preventing the information from getting to them is the first step.