Internet filters have been around since the early days of the Web and they can play an important role in preventing young children from accessing inappropriate content. But they’re not a replacement for parental involvements — and they’re not for everyone.

Before installing and configuring a filter, parents need to decide if their child needs to have software controlling how they can use the Internet and, if so, how the filter should be configured.

I don’t recommend routine use of filters for teens, especially high-schoolers. For one thing, there are lots of ways for them to get around filters, including accessing the Web from their cell phones, game consoles or other people’s PCs. And since teens are on a fast path to becoming young adults, it’s better to help them develop the filter that runs between their ears. You can’t protect them forever, so help them learn self-control. Of course, there are always exceptions, and some teens do need extra supervision.

Filters can be a convenient way to keep young children from stumbling onto material that might gross them out or disturb them. Young children generally seek out a limited number of sites, but it’s certainly possible for them to stumble onto inappropriate ones.

Seemingly innocent search terms can sometimes bring up inappropriate sites. But rather than install filters on your computer, you might consider configuring the search engine your child uses.

Google, for example, offers a “search settings” option in the upper-right corner of its main page. Click on that and select either “strict filtering” or “moderate filtering” (the default). Strict filtering, which I recommend for young children, filters both explicit text and images. Just below the setting is an option to lock safe search so kids can’t easily turn it off for that browser. Be aware, however, that the lock is browser-specific.

Microsoft’s Bing.com also has a preferences section in the upper-right corner with similar controls. Yahoo allows you to configure its filters if you’re signed in with a Yahoo account.

My safety Web site, SafeKids.com, has a search page that’s locked into Google’s strict safe search. But no safe search option is foolproof. You still need to keep an eye on young kids when they’re online.

Microsoft Windows 7 doesn’t comes with a Web filtering feature, but it has controls that let parents limit when and how long their kids use the computer and to specify which programs kids can run. To use this, you need to create a Windows account for your child, and Microsoft recommends you password-protect your own account so only you can configure your child’s account.

The “time limits” option puts up a grid that lets you drag your mouse over certain hours of specific days that you wish to block. You can also turn on “allow and block specific programs,” which blocks all programs until you approve them. Another option allows you to block or allow games.

Although it’s not built into Windows 7, Microsoft has a free Web filter that works with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft’s Family Safety program doesn’t give you a lot of granular control over the types of sites your kids can use but it does let you choose between “strict” (which blocks all but child-friendly sites and sites you’ve allowed), “basic” (which blocks adult content) and “custom” (which lets you turn on or off a few categories, including social networking and Web mail.)

Symantec offers a more robust free program called OnlineFamily.Norton, which works with both Macs and PCs. This software gives you a great deal more control over the types of sites you kids can visit and allows you to create a separate profile for each child with recommended settings based on age.

If you already have a security suite, check to see if it includes filtering. TrendMicro Internet Security Pro, for example, includes a highly configurable Web filter. Also check with your Internet service provider to see if it offers a free Web filter.

Filters and other tools are not a substitute for parenting. Regardless of your child’s age and whether or not you use a filter, you should still check in with your kids regularly about how they use the Internet, their cell phones, game consoles and other technology.

When it comes to such issues as time online or obsessive use of the Internet or texting, remember that how you act is often more powerful than what you say. Kids learn by watching and if they see you constantly on the phone or online, they might wind up emulating your behavior.

Resources:
Parental Control & Online Child Protection: An excellent and very thorough review of parental control tools by Adam Thierer, president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation

ConnectSafely.org:  News, tips and commentary on all aspects of Internet safety, especially as it applies to the interactive “social” web.  (Disclosure, the author of this article is co-director of ConnectSafely)

GetNetWise.org: Excellent resources on Internet safety

This article is adapted from one that originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

Two studies released this week shed some light on the issue of bullying and, by implication, cyberbullying. One found that bullying is actually on the decline while the other determined that talking with an adult or a friend was most likely to “make things better.”

Both of these studies were about physical bullying, but there is a very strong link between bullying in the “real world” and cyberbullying. Though there are cases of teens using the Internet or cell phones to harass or bully people they’ve never met, most cyberbullying cases involve kids who know each from the real world, typically from school. In a 2008 study of middle schoolers conducted by Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin, 82 percent said that the person who bullied them is either from their school (26.5 percent), a friend (21.1 percent), an ex-friend (20 percent) or an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend (14.1 percent).

Other studies have shown a strong correlation between cyberbullying and physical bullying which is why two just-released studies on physical bullying are relevant to online bullying as well.

David Finkelhor led study on childhood abuse and violence.
(Credit: Crimes Against Children Research Center)

Bullying on the decline
In a study (PDF) released Thursday in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, authors David Finkelhor, Heather Turner, Richard Ormrod, and Sherry Hamby found that the percentage of youth (2-17) reporting physical bullying in the past year went down from 22 percent to 15 percent between 2003 and 2008. The study also found that the percentage reporting a sexual assault decreased from 3.3 percent to 2 percent. Finkelhor, who lead the study, pointed out that declines in bullying and sexual assault, were problems that have been aggressively targeted by school programs and other prevention efforts in recent years. “This suggests that some of the decline may be the fruits of those programs,” he said.

Although the study didn’t address the issue of cyberbullying education, Internet-related bullying has been a major focus of discussion over the past few years which causes me to speculate that the educational efforts around cyberbullying may have played a role in the decline of overall bullying.

Evaluating strategies to deal with bullies
Another study (PDF), conducted by Stan Davis and Charisse Nixon of the Youth Voice Project, interviewed nearly 12,000 kids in fifth through 12th grades at 25 schools in 12 states to find out the effectiveness of different student strategies in trying to counteract or stop bullying. The study also looked at levels of trauma by a variety of factors including race and ethnicity, and gender as well as the focus on mean comments and other bullying behavior.

“Our study asked large numbers of students around the United States which actions they used and which actions made things better or worse,” said study co-author Stan Davis in an e-mail interview. “We asked them which actions by adults at school made things better or worse for them.”

Looks and body shape are major focuses for  bullies.
(Credit: Youth Voice Research Project)

When asked about the “focus” of the bullying, “looks” were a factor in 55 percent of the reported incidences. “Body shape” was a factor in 37 percent of the cases followed by race (16 percent), sexual orientation (14 percent), family income (13 percent), religion (12 percent), and disability (8 percent).

Talking helps
The authors looked at which student strategies “made things better” and found that talking to an adult at home or at school were each effective 34 percent of the time. “Made a joke about it” worked 33 percent of the time and telling a friend was effective in 32 percent of the cases.

But those same strategies sometimes had negative effects. Telling an adult at home made things worse 18 percent of the time compared to 29 percent for telling an adult at school, 27 percent for “made a joke” but only 18 percent for telling a friend. Students who “hit them or fought back” had positive results 31 percent of the time but things got worse in 49 percent of cases. Telling the person to stop made things better in 14 percent of the cases but made things worse 41 percent of the time. “Pretended it didn’t bother me was effective only 12 percent of the time and made things worse 33 percent of the time. Likewise “did nothing” was only effective in 14 percent of cases and made things worse in 40 percent of cases.

The researchers also rated student perception of response of educators and found that “listened to me” was the most effective followed by “gave me advice” and “checked in with me afterwards to see if the behavior stopped.” The least effective strategies for educators were “told me to stop tattling” and “ignored what was going on.” Telling students to act differently was also ineffective as was “told me to solve the problem myself.”

Peers can help
The study also looked at the effect of action by peers. In terms of making things better, the most effective peer strategies were “spent time with me” (54 percent), “talked to me” (51 percent), “helped me get away,” (49 percent) and “called me” (47 percent). The least effective peer responses were “blamed me,” “ignored it,” and “made fun of me.”

Bullying.org has resources for preventing and dealing with bullying. ConnectSafely.org, a nonprofit Internet safety organization I help run, has Tips to Help Stop Cyberbulling.

This post first appeared in CNET News.com

A recent survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 73 percent of online teens use social-networking sites. Updating their Facebook or MySpace page has become a regular activity for teens as is using these services to catch up on what their peers are doing. But, for the most part, teens are using social networking while they are away from school. Many schools actually ban access to services like Facebook and Twitter and often configure filtering programs to block students from accessing them.

While I can understand why it might not be educationally relevant for schools to allow students to polish their online profiles while in school, I worry that schools are disallowing the very technology that kids are using for their informal communications and learning. As my ConnectSafely.org co-director Anne Collier blogged on NetFamilyNews, “Gutenberg’s press, was pretty controversial back in the day (15th c.) and probably didn’t make it into ’school’ for a while.”

Today, of course, books are a staple in school but, as any trip to a bookstore will illustrate, not all books are appropriate for classrooms. Should educators ban books because some books are “bad?” Of course not. Educators select appropriate books for use in class and incorporate them into the educational process.

The same should be true of social networking. While I’m not convinced that school filters should prevent kids from accessing sites like Facebook and MySpace from school computers during breaks, I can understand why educators would mostly avoid them for classroom use. Of course, there are pages on these sites with educational value, so it makes sense more sense for teachers to be granular by allowing access to appropriate social-networking pages rather than banning them entirely.

Social networking designed for schools
But it also makes sense to think about ways to incorporate specialized social networking tools in class. The Flat Classroom Project is one example where educators have built social-networking sites (mostly using Ning) specifically for use in class and home assignments. Not only does this allow for educationally relevant communication for students in the classroom, but for them to interact with students in far away classrooms both in the U.S. and abroad so students around the world can reach and learn from each other.

Fortunately, the idea of school-based social networking is starting to take hold. It has caught the attention of Mary McCaffrey, CEO of SchoolCenter. School Center, which bills itself as a “Web solutions company in the education market,” is in the process of developing social-networking tools marketed specially to schools. These tools will encourage students to interact with each other, using many of the same techniques they do when away from school but focused on their educational mission.

I spoke with McCaffrey not only about what her company plans to offer but about what many schools are currently missing.

Listen now:

This post originally appeared on CNET News.com