Protect Your Child on the Internet

The Internet can be a wild and dangerous place, especially for children. There are the expected risks of viruses, worms, hackers and other nasty things, but there are even more dangerous things to be found in the content of websites and newsgroups. Although there is no replacement for parental guidance and involvement, there are things you can do to minimize your child's exposure to the seamier side of the World (Wide Web).

Content Ratings

One of the more promising techniques for controlling your Internet exposure is known as Content Rating. This is basically the same idea as movie ratings, but on a voluntary basis. Website owners specify the rating for their site, and you decide which sites your children are allowed to see.

The Ratings Process

Website owners register their sites with one or more well-known ratings services (such as the ICRA), effectively telling them what types of content can be found on their website. For example, the owner of an art museum website may specify that their site contains depictions of violence and artistic nudity, but no graphic sexual language or images. The ratings service then assigns the website a "rating", which is made available on the website.

Next, the parent configures their browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer, to enable content ratings. After activating a particular ratings service (e.g., ICRA), the he or she then reads through all the categories upon which the ratings service rates websites, specifying if and what level of each category the users of the browser should be allowed to see.

In addition, and very importantly, the parent must specify whether or not users should be allowed to visit unrated websites. This is very important because, currently, the majority of website are not rated. Unlike the case with movies, ratings are not mandatory or validated. Most ratings are determined by the website owner, who is trusted by the ratings service to be honest.

Finally, the child visits a rated website using Internet Explorer. The browser checks the website content rating, if available, to determine what kind of content we can expect. It then compares the ratings to the restrictions specified by the parent. If they match, then the browser displays the website. If not, the child sees a message saying that the website is off limits.

Specifying Allowable Content

If you are using Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher, you can access the Content Ratings settings for your browser in the Content Advisor section, which can be found through the Tools menu, Internet Options submenu and Content page. Use the Enable and Settings buttons to enable and configure content restrictions.

You can use one or more ratings systems by downloading their .RAT file to your %System% directory (usually located in the C:\Windows\System32 directory) and then adding it to the Ratings Systems section of the Content Advisor settings. Your can download the ratings files here for ICRA and SafeSurf, but there are other services available.

For more information on configuring your computer for content ratings and other techniques for protecting your children on the Internet, visit the ICRA website.