Title inspired by ‘Tiamat’

February 9th is the official Safer Internet Day 2010! No problem if you never heard of it. This is a good opportunity to take a break from what you are doing and think about how you can make the internet a safer place – especially for the most vulnerable surfers out there: Kids. You don’t have to be a parent to understand that some of those pages you accidently surf to (or maybe not so accidental) are certainly not for the eyes of our small ones and that the internet should not be trusted with any kind of personal information.

Parents want their kids to grow up using and understanding new technology but at the same time they are also concerned about the dangerous side of the internet. Web filtering software – similar to what enterprise users are accustomed to – can be useful to block obviously inappropriate content. This does not relief the parent from guiding and – to a certain extend – controlling the junior surfer however. Considering that some of the best parental control software is available for free there is no excuse not to take a couple minutes and make the surfing experience a safer one. It is not very surprising that Microsoft is one of the providers of parental control software considering their dedication to children and family friendly initiatives. Windows Live Family safety provides more than just web filtering, whereas BlueCoat’s K9 focuses on their (excellent) content filtering service. There is also TechMission SafeFamilies which seems to struggle with newer operating systems however.

Beyond the content filtering security enhancing addons like Trend Micro’s Web Protection, Finjan’s SecureBrowsing or WebOfTrust (WOT) will provide further protection from web based threats.

More information and tips on how to make the Internet an enjoyable experience for kids can be found on the (co-founded by the European Union) insafe site. Keep in mind – help the kids and you help your future.