There's no substitute for Knowing whats what

One of the main justifications offered for curtailing the freedom of speech that generally prevails on the Internet is that children using the Net (in ever increasing numbers) may be exposed to harm, i.e., pornographic or other "adult" discussion. Proponents of Net freedom argue instead that parents should supervise and educate their children on the proper use and the dangers of the Net, just as they should "streetproof" and supervise their kids in the real world. Several commercially available software programs allow parents to exercise a degree of automated control over their children's access to taboo parts of the Internet. Net Nanny, for example, allows you to monitor where your child has been going on the Net, in order to discover if he or she has been to places they shouldn't have been. SurfWatch allows parents to block access to particular newsgroups and World Wide Web pages. However, as with everything else involving the upbringing of children, the bottom line is parental involvement-a parent has to set the limits, and train children to obey the house rules. A parent wanting to "filter" how much of the Internet comes into the home will have to become knowledgeable enough about what is out there to make intelligent choices.