Should you censor the family PC?

Do you monitor your child's use of the web? Chances are that you do. But how do you do it?

It's likely that as a reader of a tech news site, you're fairly PC-literate and are happy to use filtering software.

If so, you're in the minority as far as the whole of the UK is concerned. According to research published yesterday, only 32 per cent of parents currently have a filter in place on the home PC.

Sixty-eight per cent of the respondents to the survey said they actively monitor their child's use of the internet themselves, while 54 per cent keep the computer in a communal living area, such as the lounge.

Only 10 per cent believe there's no need to control their child's use of the web at all.

So why do so few use filtering tools? Two main reasons were identified by the respondents to the survey. One: they're too complex. Two: many thought that installing such a package demonstrates a lack of trust.

The first factor will probably take care of itself. All software becomes easier to use as it matures (and this is still a pretty young industry), and most parents will become increasingly computer literate.

But the second one is more problematic. The report relates a conversation one of the researchers had with a father-and-son combo.

Dad (to son): "You know when you were getting up some stuff on the internet and it was a bit rude and I was fussy, what happened? How did we stop that? Did you just stop or was there a stop put on it?"

Son: "No, there wasn't a stop on it."

Dad: "So you've just stopped doing it because I didn't like it?"

Son: "I can't be bothered to go on the internet!"

Dad (no doubt in long suffering voice): "But no one brings that up now, do they? (To researcher). Because they were actually doing prints of women and things like that as well. That was mostly the older one. Obviously because I've put my foot down they've stopped doing it because it's a no-no."

Don't know about you, but I think dad may be a little naïve. Laddie there probably nips round his mate's house instead.

So why not use filtering software? It's not really about a lack of trust. Many porn sites 'hide' behind popular children's brands. A simple misspelling of a URL and bob's your ladyboy (as it were). Searching on certain innocent words can take you to some far from innocent destinations.

Maybe it's time parents thought about the online equivalent of the traditional 'birds and bees' chat. You could sit down and talk about the bits and the bytes with your kids - focusing on the bits youngsters really shouldn't see. Explain that there are people out there who are clever and evil enough to fool even the most mature child. Say that you know they won't deliberately go to any iffy sites, but that it's very easy to stumble across them.

That doesn't show a lack of trust. In fact it'll mean you have to spend less time looking over your child's shoulder or routing through the history file (which surely demonstrates even less trust than installing some software).

Filtering software's nothing to be scared of. Go tell your friends.