Online threats to your children are very real. The anonymity of the Internet allows dangerous predators to befriend kids who are too young to understand the threat. The FBI takes this threat seriously, their Strategic Plan 2004-2009 lists the dangers;

You need to protect your family - the FBI can only act after after a crime has been committed - too late for your children.

Are your kids safe cyber surfers? Take the Federal Trade Commission's Quiz.

Other dangers exist as well - 'free' games loaded with spyware to track your every move on line, viruses that reprogram your browser so you're attacked with an endless stream of pop-up ads that make your computer unusable, and hate-filled or pornographic sites filled with the vilest material imaginable. Even good kids with the best of intensions can accidentally surf to a pornographic or dangerous site. Pornographers often use domain names very similar - or with commonly typed typographical errors - to popular sites. For many years, WhiteHouse.com was a pornography site, these days it is an inoffensive collection of ads (The Official site for The White House is www.WhiteHouse.GOV). Other pornographers buy legitimate domains that the owners did not renew - a site that was perfectly safe yesterday could be filled with hard-core pornography today. Unfortunately, all of this is perfectly legal - no one is going to stop them from posting pornography on the web - you have to act to protect your children.

Your best defense against dangerous sites is 'Parental Control' software. Sometimes called 'Anti-Porn' software, these programs keep databases of unsafe sites that your children are blocked from viewing. Almost all of the programs let you add additional sites you disapprove of to the blocked list. Two of our favorite Parental Control programs are tuEagles' Anti-Porn Filtering (More Info - Buy) and Net Nanny from LookSmart, Ltd. (More Info - Buy)  - you can save a few dollars by buying the Net Nanny Platinum Bundle ( More Info - Buy) which contains the full version of Net Nanny and also includes full versions Net Nanny's Chat Monitor and Net Nanny's Ad-Free programs - the Chat Monitor is an especially useful tool to protect teens.

There are several practical steps you can take to protect your kids while they're online:

• Make sure you have 'Parental Control' - sometimes called 'Anti-Porn' software installed. Keep the program up-to-date with frequent updates (most will update automatically if you set the option).
• Talk to your kids. Sort of an old-fashioned idea, but it's been known to work. Make sure they understand at least the basics - to never, ever give out their name or address to strangers and to tell you when someone they don't know tries to chat with them or asks for personal information. You can write out an agreement to spell out the rules for Internet use in your home. You can use our free agreement. Feel free to share it with anyone interested. Or, Yahooligans! has a similar pledge here, and SafeKids.com has one here.
• Move the computer out of the kid's room and into a central area in your home - one with lots of foot traffic. You'll be able to keep track of what your kids are up to. Watch to see if they suddenly change the screen when you walk in - what don't they want you to see?
• Use child-friendly search engines, or at least turn on the adult material filter for the search engines you use.
  • AltaVista - turn on the adult filter here. Password protected to keep your kids from turning it off.
  • Ask Jeeves For Kids - Kid friendly search engine
  • Google - turn the filter on here, under 'Preferences.' Requires Google placing a cookie on your computer. Harmless, but be careful your ad blocking software does not remove it. Google doesn't offer any protection to keep your kids from changing the preference to turn the filter off.
  • KidsClick! describes itself as "a project of the Ramapo Catskill Library System. KidsClick! was created by a group of librarians at the Ramapo Catskill Library System, as a logical step in addressing concerns about the role of public libraries in guiding their young users to valuable and age appropriate web sites."
  • Yahooligans! - kid friendly version of Yahoo's popular search engine.
• Make sure you know your kid's usernames and passwords. Check up on them once in a while.
• Learn about the Internet yourself so you can understand what your teens are talking about (about the Internet, anyway). Sites like this one are a good first step.

Download and install your Parental Control program now - the bad guys are already out there trying to get to your kids.