Internet filters and parental control software

                

               

The Internet is a crazy huge place, and it is an amazing thing. However, there is a lot of content on the Internet that is very explicit and inappropriate for children and teens to have access to. This is where parental controls and Internet filters come in. Internet filters are software tools that can monitor what sites a child visits and blocks them from seeing inappropriate material. They work by excluding or including certain content, also known as "blacklisting" or "whitelisting".

                Parents are the ones who put Internet filters into place, which is why “parental controls” is an overarching term for the use of filtering and blocking. Internet filters can be found pre-installed on popular browsers such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, but there are also outside applications for Internet filtering, such as Netnanny. Even though filtering is mostly used to protect kids from accessing the wrong things, it can also be used by businesses to restrict employee usage of the Internet or to limit public access to certain sites in places such as a school or a library.

      http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4963466_internet-filters-work.html

http://www.microsoft.com/security/resources/internetfilters-whatis.aspx