Making sure children are safe while they surf requires thought and planning on the part of parents, teachers and carers, so be prepared to put some effort in




What you should do

• Get on the learning curve: It's essential to find out how The Web works, what it has to offer and why children find it so attractive. Start is with an easy Beginner's Guide to the Internet, and you'll also need straightforward information for parents and teachers.

• Establish ground rules: You might, for instance, want to restrict computer uasage to certain times of the day, or as a growing number of parents are doing, remove all computer equipment from the bedroom and put it in the kitchen or living room. It's important to signal to children that surfing The Web is a social activity.

• When you're not around: There are times when you simply won't be able to watch the screen with children while they surf around, so be sure to let them know to alert you at once if they see anything disturbing. You can then trace how they came across it and help them avoid it in future.

Whatever the rules, let the whole family know and let them also know the penalties for not sticking to them. You could even print them out and stick them on the wall next to the computer.

• Make your browser child-safe: There are protective controls in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator that can reduce risks, like stopping the 'history' of pages from being collected - so, if you connect to an inappropriate site either by mistake or by design, your children will be blocked from seeing it. Use your browser to add some degree of filtering. It takes a bit of work, but the effort is well worth it.

What you should not do

• Never let young children surf alone: Always be with them and guide them through the pages. That way you can deal with any 'horrors' that might crop up.

• Never connect without protection: Invest in a 'firewall', for example, which will help protect you from unwanted intruders. A good, free, firewall is available from, Zone Labs.

• Don't allow strangers access to your computer : They could change your settings or remove protection you already have in place.