Computers at Home

While many of your child's interactions with educational technology are going to take place at school and will, for the most part, be determined by his or her school's policies, home computing is one area where you are entirely in charge.

This section of "How Can I Help My Child?" is designed to help you answer some of the questions that you may have about home computing and your child. Here are just a few of the questions that usually come up:

1. Should I buy a computer for my child?
   
2. My child wants a laptop computer. Is this really a good idea?
3. How can I make good decisions about purchasing educational software?
4. Should I install Internet filtering software, and just how well does filtering software actually work?
5. How can I keep my child safe on the Internet?
6. Should there be household rules governing computer use?
7. Should I place time limits on my child's computer use?

Just click on the above questions for tips and suggestions on how you might want to go about answering each of them. As you will see, there are some definite "dos" and "don'ts"—especially when it comes to Web safety—but there is still a lot of room for parents to set their own policies.

To Filter or Not to Filter?

Many parents, in an effort to protect their children, opt to put filtering software on their home computer(s). Such software attempts to prevent access to pornography, hate speech, and other forms of Web content that have been deemed by the software manufacturer to be offensive and unsuitable for children. These programs usually allow parents to set the "level" of filtering used and to add individual Web sites to a list of blocked sites. Many of these programs offer an additional "history" feature that retains a log of every Web site that has been visited over a specified period of time.

It is important to note that filtering software is inherently imprecise. Some objectionable sites will get past a filter, while other sites to which you would have no objection will be blocked, merely because of a word that appears somewhere on the site. To give just a few examples, sites about breast cancer, the poetry of Anne Sexton, and AIDS awareness have all been blocked by filters.

Below are links to a few Web sites that offer useful information about Internet filtering software and the debates that have emerged in the software's wake. If you are already using filtering software, you may have to turn it off to gain access to these sites.

ALA | Resolution on the Use of Filtering Software in Libraries
http://www.ala.org/alaorg/oif/filt_res.html
The American Library Association's position on federal legislation that requires public libraries to install Internet filters on their computers in order to receive federal funding.

CyberPatrol
http://www.cyberpatrol.com/
One of the more popular filtering software manufacturers.

CYBERsitter
http://www.cybersitter.com/
Another major filtering software manufacturer.

The National Coalition Against Censorship
http://www.ncac.org/
An alliance of 50 national non-profit organizations, including literary, artistic, religious, educational, professional, labor, and civil liberties groups. Click on the link "NCAC on the Issues" to learn more about this organization's position on Internet filters.

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