The winner is Leslie! Congrats and enjoy!
When your kids are little, the internet is a simple place. They are monitored while online 100%, simply for the fact that they could break something if you walk away! But as they age, you tend to walk away more and more, thinking "What can he possibly find at this age? He's so innocent and still loves Pokemon, for crying out loud!"
I will admit that I fell into that protected bubble. I felt my kids were relatively safe since I was never farther than a room away. And while I don't believe they would ever intentionally look for "bad internet stuff" I DO believe that "bad internet stuff" looks for them. I am NOT ok with that.
Enter the program, InternetSafety.com, SafeEyes. SafeEyes is a parental control software that gives you, the parent, control over what their little eyes are exposed to. It allows you to block (or not) certain programs, games, websites (by categories), instant messaging and more. SafeEyes can record inappropriate posting of personal information and will report it back to you. It even has the option of placing a time limit on their computer time!
At first, I wasn't sure it was working. I don't customarily go to websites that one would consider objectionable. None of my children use the internet for more than games or YouTube videos. But have you SEEN some of the YouTube videos that are allowed to be published? Some of them are nothing short of pornographic! I finally realized the value of SafeEyes when I was personally going through a friend's website but couldn't see the pictures. I was confused. What was wrong with my computer? Had I gotten a virus or something?
And then it clicked in my brain. This site had, in the past, had pictures that weren't 100% innocent (though not horrible, either). The pictures were definitely ones I would have wanted to review before allowing my kids to look through them. The program was working! And, the best part? I was able to turn it off easily so that I could still peruse the internet as an adult.
Right then, I was sold. My children are coming into an age where internet safety is a serious issue. You may be finding yourself in a similar situation. If so, I have a 1 year subscription to the SafeEyes program for 1 lucky reader!
Ways to enter:
~ Comment!
~ Subscribe to my blog
~ Tweet about this giveaway
~ post about this giveaway on your own blog
I'll pick the winner on August 14. Good luck!
I'd really like to win a copy of this book.
ReplyDeletewandanamgreb (at) gmail (dot) com
Now that sounds like a good program thatthe whole family could live with!!
ReplyDeletewe use this program so how would that work if I won?
ReplyDeleteSo, it blocks part of what is on the page, not the whole page?
ReplyDeleteHm, that might be useful, because the parental controls that come with Vista are a little too all or nothing. We have relied on moving all internet accessible computers to the living room, right by our front door.
Yay I won!!
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
you can email me leslie (dot) potvin (at) gmail (dot) com
We're on vacation now though, so my internet access is a little wonky...