Few people would deny that the internet has brought into our homes a range of information, entertainment and business that would have been impossible a short time ago.
It has also brought ugliness. This is especially true for children. If they use computers that are not under some kind of guidance, it is possible for them to access sites that could be disturbing, and that does not simply mean pornographic sites. There are sites with violence and photographs of accidents and many others that could be seen as far worse than naked human bodies. No matter what the content, most parents would agree that they would prefer that their children did not access such sites.
They are deeply concerned with this issue but many do not have degrees in computer science, either. If it is difficult enough for them to use their own computers, how are they to control what their children do?
There are plenty of different makes of software that parents can buy that enable them to closely monitor and protect their children from offending sites, but the first and simplest thing parents can do is set an operating system to block sites it thinks are not suitable for children.
Brian Patterson is the director of a local public relations company that specialises in technology. He has thought about how to handle the internet with his children and has used basic techniques. 'I think the easiest first step a parent can take to protect their kids is to use the parental controls that come with most operating systems. Our family computer is an Apple iMac running the Leopard operating system and it allowed us to set up protected accounts for our two bigger boys - five and 10 years old,' he said.
For the most part, he said, he was happy with the results. He does keep the machine in an open space at home so he can see what is going on if he wants to.
Peter Heavyside is the managing director of third-i, a company specialising in network security. He said that much discussion was prompted by the infamous photographs that appeared all over the internet last year involving actor Edison Chen Koon-hei's private photos of himself and female starlets. Although some software on home computers would prevent your children from accessing such a site - by accident or design - it really needed to be dealt with at the network level if possible.