Kidshield Guide to Web Filtering

What is web filtering?

Web Filtering tools are commonly available but the latest research reports that less than 10% of households with parents use them.  Adoption rates of web filters are at an alarmingly low level, yet most parents cite that they are worried their children may be exposed to harmful content online. 

At Kidshield we believe that a major reason for parents hesitancy is their lack of understanding of the web in general and their reluctance to start 'policing' their children. 

Nearly a third of young people have received unwanted sexual comment online or by text. Just 7% of parents know their child has been subjected to such material.  4.2 million websites contain indecent images 100,000 websites contain indecent images of children

Source: Ceop

"In real life you would protect your children, so why not protect them on the Internet?"

Did you know that there are roughly 30,000 new pornography links created every day? And something like 5000 new pornography web sites registered daily? It is estimated that there are over 1 million paedophiles actively trawling chat rooms and social networking sites looking for child targets.

As parents, the team at Kidshield sought out to find the best software to protect kids online to recommend to our visitors.  We had 5 main objectives:

• It would be easy to install and understand - even for non IT literate parents

• It would protect children against viewing over 18's material such as pornography sites

• It would allow parents to adjust the software to suit children of different age ranges

• It would be a reputable and trusted name, experienced in protecting children online

• It would be reasonably priced allowing most families the opportunity of purchase

During our trials we tested over 25 popular software to protect kids online and found very differing results.  Many software to protect kids online either over-controlled and our kids were frustrated at constant 'barring', or they were so complicated that we guessed most parents wouldn't take the time to figure them out.

Our top pick amongst the 25 tested was Net Nanny which performed head and shoulders above other software to protect kids online. 

Net Nanny is:

• easy to install

• easy to manage

• provides monitoring of Instant Messaging and Peer-to-Peer Networking and lots more

• costs less than an X-Box or PS2 game

• Did everything we asked and more!

You can purchase Net Nanny directly from the Kidshield Store for only £29.99

FREE Trial Available

Children and young people often place themselves at risk online by engaging in risky, cybersexual behaviour. These situations could have been prevented if young users had been sufficiently empowered to stay in control of their personal information online or recognise and take steps to protect themselves from risky engagement with suspicious contacts.  Source:  CEOP

Sex Offenders in your area.  Read the UK Mappa 2007 Annual Report - find the number of sex offenders living in your area.

Sex Offenders Register.  How does the Sex Offenders Register work?