Safe Surfing

Want your kids to be able to surf the Net for games and homework help without running into smut and stalkers? Well, so do the owners of Two Dog Net, a Pleasanton-based company that developed The Children’s Internet (TCI), a service that restricts children to safe sites only.

Two Dog Net won PC Magazine’s 2004 Editor’s Choice Award for developing a kid-friendly browser. Children can log on for access to sites chosen by a team of educators. Only adults with an authorized password can venture outside authorized sites.

If you’re not a subscriber to TCI, here are Two Dog Net’s quick tips for keeping all kids safe online.

➊ Supervise: Know where your children are surfing. Never assume that something that looks kid-safe, is. If it doesn’t have a logo or a trademark, it might not be legitimate.

➋ Talk to your kids: Stranger dangers are real. The U.S. Customs Service estimates that more than 100,000 Web sites offer child pornography worldwide. Children should never give out personal information online.

➌ Blockers: There are countless parent-controlled blockers available. A Google search for "blocking and filtering" pulls up a number of helpful sites.

For more information, go to www.childrensinternet.com.