Internet  Safety Tips  

You are concerned about what you and your children see while on the Internet.  You also know the Value of online accountability.This is why you invest in a Home Internet Filter that offers both.

Sure there are a lot of fun items and of course a great place to do Research, Email Friends and Family , watch movies , check your stocks , check the weather , read the news , view online streaming media for products and services , online shopping , banking, listen to Radio broadcast and many other fun, informative and educational sites.

Boring you with Statistics on how many young Children  view adult sites by accident or curiosity or how many Men and Women view the same type of sites on purpose and how many admit they are addicted to these sites content , is alarming yet something we all know takes place.

If you didn't know this - it is VERY real.  The fact children are viewing any Adult site is mind blowing not to mention at such young ages !  Why should we be surprised , if we do not take the proper precautions to stop it. After all it is extremely easy to access and there are millions of these type of sites on the internet. The objective is to do our best to keep this from happening to our children and to everyone in our Homes

Once you have Familyfellowship.com installed , your children now know (if you choose to tell them-recommend) you are getting email reports on where they are going on the Internet. This alone holds them accountable, as they know you will know. This is backed up with the filtering of web sites,chat rooms,email,instant messengers and more, you choose to block at any time. Along with restricting how much time each day your children will have access to the internet.  This process allows for you to have talks with your children as needed, about their internet activity.  

As we all know there are obvious web sites we do not want in our home and certainly do not want our Children to see by accident or out of curiosity. Nor do we want our child to view such sites by clicking on a web site link from an Email sent to them. Your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter has hard core adult sites filtered as a default setting as well as sites used to by pass internet filters and cannot be changed.

There are other sites and applications that need to be managed by you , the parent , based upon what you feel is appropriate.

It is our goal:

• To provide you with the basic awareness of online applications and web site types that you should consider managing based upon your Child's age and your over all Family values. Along with the tools to do just that.  Here is a real life reason to do so: See Video
  

Example: If  you install your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter onto your Child's lap top , the profile settings you have in place for your Child will be enforce, literally anywhere on the planet, they access the Internet and you can make changes to their internet settings any time you like from your computer or remotely using another computer or smart phone with internet access.

• Remember it is a World WILD Web out there where anything goes.

Therefore supervising your families Internet use by managing where and what your children do online, as well as receiving accountability email reports, is the best over all solution. Bottom Line:  Being involved.

• Internet Safety is not hard to accomplish. It simply requires you to have the wisdom to install an Internet Filter and then take the time to set up the profiles to best fit the person using that profile. In other words simply supervise the "playground"
  

As the old saying goes, an ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure.

Let's get started

Take a look at this You Tube Video made by You Tube some great info: You Tube online Tips Remember with Familyfellowship.com Phishing is added as a default setting in each profile. So your covered

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An important note as to Smart Phones: Please be aware when using a filter for a smart phone, that the filter is built using another browser so it can filter the content when accessing the Internet. YET the IMPORTANT Information is that this browser Can NOT be locked down.

Thus the user of the phone can simply change to the original browser and by pass the filtering. Please Know this. The concern is that people whom use smart phone ( I phone , Android etc ) Think that their phones are now filtered and they are. YET since the browser can't be locked down it is a simple change to switch to non filtered.

Therefore if your thinking your children's smart phone is now filtered and they cant see the "Bad Stuff" Now you know they can and you will not know it. Please be sure to check if your Smart phone allows you to restrict the original browser from being used. Then test the phone to see if only the filter browser can be used. 

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Social Networking sites                           

These are sites such as Face book , You Tube , Twitter and so on.

• See this Video on how to learn more about this :  Mistakes even Smart kids make 

• Here is another:  Facebook Rules

• See Guidelines for You Tube

• Please see this as well : Safety Mode for You Tube
• Do you know what Twitter is? : See what Twitter is
  

• NOW: here is a Video on Social networking Safety about 10 mins yet worth the time to see: Security and safety on Twitter, Facebook and my space

Some ideas on how to talk to your children about being online:  It's about your Children

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With Familyfellowship.com you can filter all Social Networking sites and then select only the ones you feel are appropriate for your Home & child's profile.

Social networking sites are something you should truly consider not allowing your child to interact or view without your knowledge and supervision.

Remember , what ever you place on these type of sites, such as a Face book page or Twitter site the information is posted - Meaning it becomes Public!

Information like your child's email address, their name - cell phone # - home address - age and so on are commonly given out by the child as well as any other information your Child has revealed. These sites can also be and are used for Cyber Bulling. Say your Child has a Face book page people could begin posting ugly and derogatory words - this is called Cyber bullying.  If your child does not have a Face book account or twitter account no one can bully them  by posting hurtful words and photos. If your child cannot access these types of sites they will not be tempted by peer pressure, to join in with the bullying or be bullied.

Example to clarify the difference between an actual public place such as the Shopping Mall and the Internet being an actual public place.  The internet is just that.

Would you approve of your Child talking to anyone at the Shopping Mall telling them personal information about themselves or Posting their name and cell phone # on the " Mall Social Wall " ? 

You talk to them about this and they respond:  "Why not Mom / Dad what's wrong with it, everyone is doing it , your just paranoid !!!!

 It is the same on the Internet yet can and does become much worse, as people "hide" their identity sitting in front of a computer. Saying and doing what they will, without any concern of becoming "Known".  Do you really want your children involved in this ?  

Yet now you can do something about it , with your Familyfellowship.com home Internet filter. Yes, your child may not like it. As they get older they will thank you for keeping them out of all that , as they see a few of their friends paying the consequences they avoided.

• We suggest you block all of these sites in your children's profile(s) then set up your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet filter , Password protected Quick Allow link feature  (located in your profile manager preferences) so you are there with your Child when they would like to see a friends Face book page or view a You Tube video. Our quick allow feature has a timer, you select the amount of time , once the time you selected expires (say 10 minutes) then the site will be blocked again. So you can 1st approve the site they want to see and then go back to what you were doing  or if your child says "Thank you, but Can I have some privacy please" you can say sure knowing the site will be denied again automatically, based upon your time settings.
  

This way your involved and it keeps your child safe from having full access to such sites, where their personal information is posted on the Internet for all to see. Be careful.

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Web Chat sites

Please see this video on web Chat sites to learn more about safety and the troubles it can cause :  Web Chat site example

These are sites that are on web serves and found online where your child can talk to strangers at anytime 24/7 from any where. A friend tells them about these and how fun they can be , so they join in and now they are at jeopardy by interacting with complete strangers. 

These sites are not protected as to validating age are any other  information such as criminal records etc. - There is no way to do so, think about it , how could this be actually done ?

Therefore your child is talking to people whom lie about their age doing what they can to get to know your child - these type of people are known as online predators. These predators also use Social networking sites as well.  

Your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter provides you with the ability to block these sites for each profile. 

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Web Email 

Web Email are sites like Yahoo Mail  G Mail  Hot Mail and so on.  These are not as much a Safety issue as they are an item for you to consider on how your child uses Email.

With your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter you can select to filter out all web mail and then place the web mail you, the parent, have selected to use for your Family Email into the allow list. This will block all other web mail applications and allow only yours to work.

Why is this important?  This way you only have one web email account and in some you can view the email of all uses in your account. Thus you can track emails of your children as you feel is needed. This can be very helpful if you suspect and issue. You will have a record of the email conversations to review.

In addition, someone sends you a web site link to say an adult site and it is clicked on and begins to open, it will be denied when Familyfellowship.com internet filter is installed.

Example: Say your using g mail, you simply type in the allow tab area in each profile you have made , so you see this in front of the http://mail.google.com  then click ADD and now you will be able to access g mail yet will be denied if any other Web mail application is accessed. 

If your wondering how do I know the correct web address for the web mail I would like to use: Simply look at the web site address  and copy that site address and place it in the allow tab area in your profile(s) Typically it will be like this example: mail.yahoo.com depending on the web mail your using.

Why is this important ?

Your child can go to any web mail site and make their own email address without you ever knowing.

If you use an email client like Mac mail , Outlook express , office Outlook and so on. You can forward your web mail to the Mail client you use and select to leave a copy on the web mail server. This way you have a record of every email sent from each email address you made with your web mail account ( for a set of time based upon your web mail provider ). Works great as a back up copy. Simply access your web mail account to read them.That includes your children's mail

You can also select the setting to keep a copy on the server when using only Web mail as well. This way you have a copy of all emails sent from each email address when you set up the account.

This is about your families Safety not about snooping. It can be extremely useful in a crisis or if you simply suspect something is wrong. You now have a way to check into such communications and learn what is going on - if anything via the emails

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File Sharing

Learn about File Sharing in this Video: File sharing

This is a means where anyone can send you files that you down load or view on your computer as well as on the Internet. It can be used to send photos and so on. It is always best not to allow these. Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter provides you the means to filter File Sharing applications.   

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IM known as Instant Messaging

This is a common down load from Yahoo or AOL and other such providers - that is not on a public venue. You have to issue your account name for people to talk with you. It is literally an online text message type service. 

This service is simply one you should be aware of and decide if it is appropriate for your child. The negative issues happen when your child provides their username to someone they do not really know - simply someone off the Internet they meet some other way.  It can also be used for bullying - so best to use caution.

Here is a Video of how this takes place while using Instant messaging : Do you really know who your talking too?

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VOIP or as it is known: Voice over IP

This is web based software that allows you to talk over the internet just like a Cell or land line phone.  See this video  to learn exactly what VOIP is. It can be a great tool and save money on long distance calls. Yet is not a great Idea for Children to be able to access and call whom ever they please when ever they please , wherever they please and you have no knowledge of this.

Your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter provides you the ability to block VOIP per profile. You can have this open on your profile and blocked on the Children's.You will see within the top 10 internet protocol email reports ( provided you selected this for your child's profile ) if they have accessed a VOIP site, if you forgot to restrict this item. To remind you to do so.

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Internet Accountability

It helps to have someone hold you accountable while on the net. Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter provides a system for just that, as part of your Filtering.

Click here to review how the Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filtering Accountability System works

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Internet Activity Reports

These are a must have item. 

The reasons these are an important item for Internet safety is simply having a clue on where your Children have been on the Internet. With out the Internet Filter reports you have no idea, other than checking the computer for the history and that can and is erased very easily. Again , it is simply Supervising the "Playground"

• Your Familyfellowship.com Home internet Filter offers a variety of reports some with live links to websites viewed , others in a pie charts and others in different  formats. Top 10 and top 100  web sites Denied and Allowed reports - Internet Request reports - Category activity reports
• Our most complete report is the Request logs Allowed  / Denied that will list all the web sites visited with live links to each and more. As it logs every internet site request.
  

Each report is sent to any email address of your choice, on a Daily, Weekly or Monthly time frame. You can have the reports sent to two email address, if desired.

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Search Engines

With out a home internet filter anyone can type into a Search Engine such as Yahoo! or Bing any word and see results of the search. This leads to trouble as this is one example how young Children see adult sites and words - not because they chose to it is simply due to the search results sent back with the text and links to these sites. One day the word Adult will no longer be used to describe these items as we as adults find it inappropriate as well - yet also tempting and unfortunately even a child may begin to re visit these sites once exposed.  This is a VERY serious matter folks.  

Sure some Search Engines have a Safe Search feature , yet that can easily be turned off. Your Familyfellowship.com Home Internet Filter comes with our Safe Search Feature that Forces the safe search to remain on and cannot be turned off  while searching the Internet using engines such as  as Yhaoo!   Bing Google , even You Tube and so on. In addition there is also our Search Keyword feature for specific words when typed into a search engine or web site address , will be denied. 

It is our hope this information is of value to you.  Feel free to Email FamilyFellowship.com Support with any questions you may have.