Home Security - Protect Your Children Online - Part 3

Steps to Keep Your Kids Safe - What Can and Can't Be Done

Home security is about protecting your family, and the most overlooked means of entry is sitting in your living room...your computer...this article discusses the Commission for the Online Protection of Children's recommended steps to keeping your children safe online... home security system, alarm, camera

There are many steps we could take to protect our children from unsuitable materials we see in everyday life. We could hide the newspaper from them so that they won't see any articles or advertisements, throw away the television, trash the VCR, etc. Obviously, these are not the types of steps we want, nor should take. The Internet is a vast resource of good information for our children to use and to grow by. However, those sites and publishers of adult material know this also, and have a very powerful weapon at there disposal to use when the screws are tightened for them to clean up their act. That tool is the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The First Amendment, for those of you who have been out of 8th grade Civics class for a while, gives Americans the right of free speech. This amendment does not state that we have the right to free, and suitable, speech; the right to speech suitable to all Americans, the right of speech that does not include pornography. This is what the adult entertainment industry uses as their defense to all encroachments on their ability to market and sell their materials. Government has been effective in a couple areas of entertainment in at least providing consumers with information that content may not be suitable for children as in movie ratings and parental advisory stickers on music. However, this does not prevent young children from purchasing or viewing this type of material. It also does not provide recourse back to the seller for this material being available for use to children.

The COPC has reviewed how other industries handle this problem, and have incorporated these same processes into their recommendations. There is currently software available to consumers that may be installed on your computer to block specific content from the Internet. This software will also provide reports that show attempts made to access sites. Some software will also allow access to sites to the point where explicit material is accessed, kicking the user off the Internet when that area is reached. This process is effective to a point. That point is where it interferes with the ability for a young user to gain valuable and useful information on a topic the software may see as offensive, including research on breast cancer (breast is a "lockout" word), other forms of reproductive cancers, etc. This type of material we want our children to be able to access. The software does not make it easy to add/remove words such as this, so it becomes a complex issue. The recommendation has also been made to add rating designations to websites. This presents basically the same issues experienced in the entertainment industry, with one exception. It is hard to verify that the person actually sitting at the computer is under 18 years of age. With the knowledge most of our children have today, it is not difficult to circumvent the system.

The COPC has also made recommendations to add domain names that reflect the content being marketed or distributed by the sites. This would include domains such as .XXX or .SEX for adult entertainment sites. Again, the First Amendment argument arises in that these domain names make it easier to filter out this material which they are free to distribute. It would also provide an unwanted designation on the site that would make it more recognizable as an adult entertainment site and drop the number of hits to the page. Recently this was rejected by the ICANN board in a 9 to 5 vote. The adult entertainment industry opposed it as "increased state control" &, oddly enough, anti-pornography advocates also opposed, believing it "legitimizes an illegitimate industry..."

In the last article in this series, I'll state what the commission's final recommendation is, as well as what other advocacy groups have to say on this issue.


?Walter Stone
Home Security Online
Security Systems, alarms, motion detectors.
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Walter Stone has been a Home Security & Commercial Security Technical Consultant since 1983. He currently resides in Frederick, MD with his wife and three children. He has spent the last eleven years working for First Action Security Team in Hagerstown, MD. http://www.firstactionteam.com

Home Security Patio Sliding Glass Doors

As promised at the end of part 4 of this series, in this section I will deal with Patio Sliding Glass Doors. Quite often homeowners install sturdy locks on their front doors but leave their patio doors and sliding glass windows "wide open" to illegal entry.

Burglars love these because they are so easy to open. Usually, sliding doors and windows are at the side or rear of the home so they are more secluded than the front door, this makes a perfect place for burglars to hide and enter.

There are two main risks that need to be protected against.

1. Forcing the lock.

The standard lock that is fitted to most sliding doors and windows is very easy to pry open, an additional stronger lock should be fitted to give more security. Something as simple as lying a broomstick in the runner can offer some protection provided it is a good fit.

However Dead Locks are much better, they will prevent the burglar from using the door or window to remove stolen property unless they smash the glass and that is a very noisy and risky thing for them to do.

2. Lifting Out.

Many sliding doors and windows can be lifted out of their tracks from the outside. You can prevent this by putting two metal screws through the track above the sliding part of the door or window, the screw will need to be adjusted to allow the door to operate correctly.

Double Hung Windows

To lock a double hung window, you will have to drill a downward sloping hole into the top of the bottom window, and through that into the bottom of the top window being careful to avoid the glass unit, if you have any doubt about your DIY abilities get a professional tradesman to do it. Once the hole is drilled a pin can be inserted, locking the window shut.

To use the window for ventilation, you should partly open it (less that 4 inches) and making a second set of holes, the window can then be used for ventilation.

Remember, open windows and doors, even if secured, should never be left unattended while you are gone or asleep.

This section is quite short but I thought the information was important enough to deserve a section of it's own. In part six we will be dealing with Burglar Alarms.For more vital home security tips and information about how to protect your home and family please visit http://www.homesecuritynews.info You may reproduce this article provided you maintain an active link back to http://www.homesecuritynews.info