Compass — GPS for Cyberspace Navigation

6 min readNov 10, 2015

Are you like me? Are you a little confused by “cyberspace security” popups every time you login to your computers? What software is essential? What isn’t? What’s safe and what isn’t? The rules keep changing as technology evolves.

Sometimes I wish I had a GPS button to push just to be sure that I’m visiting a trusted site — the GPS would alert me and prevent a virus from embedding into my computer after signing off. Trust me, I do have all the anti-virus protection software installed. I recently bought scanning software and it keeps finding junk files! And, I keep deleting them. Scary, right? How can there be so many junk files found in so little time? Well, yes I’m becoming a little paranoid. If I am paranoid, I can imagine the dilemma that parents are facing! I bet they’d love a GPS button to vet all the content online before they allow their kids to view even the kid-friendly sites.

Don’t judge a site by its name. Parental, conservative, religious, and family sites are not all 100% kid-safe. Sometimes they hire interns or professional content developers to build their social media presence and increase their followers. I was assuming all their content was vetted just because of who they are and their standards but I was wrong. I was shocked to find myself, on few occasions, bombarded by erotic and graphic photos. Originally, I started deleting or blocking some of these companies and then I realized after speaking to a few that they had hired out for social media maintenance. Outsourcing is really the problem and companies cannot always be expected to have their staff devote time to social media maintenance. I made peace with that. Their motto hasn’t changed but the sourcing did. Some of the educational content still interested me.

This brings me to my point: Even though you’ve set family computer screen time and blocked profane content, ensure that the followers on all kid-friendly feeds are clean too. That’s why it is good to preview whatever we’re about to log in to before we let children view it. Here is an example; I went to a known mothering magazine site the other day as I was intrigued by an article that one of my Twitter followers had retweeted. I found that the site had explicit sexual photos. I was shocked by the fact that they were following accounts that had photos of sexual acts. I was shocked. You cannot assume that a site or a Twitter account is safe just because they are geared toward parenting. It isn’t possible to “make” a site completely childproof with any of the software out there. You can disable all cookies and enable “sensitive content display” options, but nothing is better than being there with a child while he/she is surfing the net.

Embracing our digital life with prejudice. The prevalence of electronic media in our day-to-day lives can be confusing and challenging for families. You will be hard pressed to find a tween without a smart phone. And, as you know, phones can access the net too. So, families have a serious challenge when it comes to monitoring what their kids do in cyberspace 24/7. You can routinely check history on their phones and see what was searched and what sites were visited. I find myself Googling the spelling of a word instead of manually looking it up in a dictionary. So, why would I expect a child not to do the same?

Despite the challenge presented by technology, the Internet remains a great learning tool. There are so many free kid-friendly downloads, from games to coloring books, that are great for the entire family to enjoy and learn a thing or two in the process. PBS and Discovery offer great venues. It was so cute to watch my two-year-old nephew focus on a spooling video of a choo-choo train arriving at the station as his father explained how they worked. The video was a helping tool to keep his attention while helping to explain the concept of trains. The world of learning has really changed to encompass all senses.

Is there a 100% kid-safe cyberspace? Not really. But here are a few basic tips to make it almost safe.

Ask your child’s school to share their lists of kid-friendly sites, games, and downloads. Educators have been embracing the digital age and some have Twitter feeds and even their own sites. Some have protected tweets and protected content too.
Try to be there when your kids are surfing the net. It’s a commitment, I know. But, nothing replaces a parent’s own judgment. If you’re there while your child is on the Internet, you can keep an eye on things. Some suggest computer placement in common areas of the house instead of bedrooms. Like the kitchen or the living-room. Others suggest not allowing pre-teen kids Internet access on their smart phones.
Check into security software. Some have parental control options built in. When it comes to basic security software, I did install one that scans automatically every few days. And, I did notice a difference with my computer’s performance. It’s working faster. And, it also deletes embedded and junk files from the computer. You can go to trusted sites and get their recommended software. i.e. Microsoft and Apple. I recommend investing in a basic scanner software ($30.00 a year) in addition to an anti-virus one (Norton or McAfee).
Many computer manufacturing companies have 24/7 customer service and they are happy to help you make your computers and your Internet access kid-friendly. They can walk you through changing settings to be more parental controlled. Some Internet, cable, and television providers have representatives trained to help you. You can manually change settings on all computers that might be accessible to children and make them password controlled. Cookies and all pop-ups can be disabled, and alerts can be set.

Ultimately, the electronic age is a good thing. It should be embraced and valued for its contribution to our lives. Many aspects of it still need to be guided by parents. But as a whole its benefits outweigh the negatives. I for one will be navigating through it, making mistakes, learning, and sharing my journey.