The Anti-virus Times

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Raising and caring for one’s children is the main duty of every parent. There have always been enough difficulties in this matter, and not so long ago, PCs and smartphones with Internet access were added to them. To prevent a child from becoming a victim of online criminals, cybersecurity experts have designed parental control—a technology for protecting children from the negative impact of the Internet.

Parental control is not just an opportunity to restrict children's Internet access. In fact, the functionality of this tool is much broader. For example, the Dr.Web Parental Control can block access to websites by the keywords in their URLs and protect children from exposure to objectionable web content. In addition, with its help, an account owner can block access to any installed application or group of applications.

By default, Parental Control is enabled for each Dr.Web account. We have already written about how to configure it in one of our Anti-virus Times issues.

Setting time limits

One of the most useful features of parental control is the ability to set time limits for using a PC or a smartphone. Parents can set the time when a device should be turned off: for example, after a certain time in the evening or during a study period. Special schedulers that block certain apps or features for a specified amount of time can also be installed.

Blocking unwanted websites

Another important feature of parental control is the ability to block dangerous or unwanted content that can harm children's mental or physical health. Parental control can restrict access to websites with inappropriate content, such as pornography, violence, and drugs.

Controlling access to social media sites and messenger programs

Controlling access to social media sites and messenger programs will help protect children from many Internet-related threats. Unfortunately, a child may not understand how dangerous it is to chat with strangers on the World Wide Web. A child can be deceived and become a victim of fraud or even violence because of uncontrolled use of social networks and messengers. In addition, some materials published there may not be appropriate for children.

Location tracking

On some devices, parental control can track the location of children using geolocation. This allows parents to always know where their child is.