Now that my kids are getting older, they are starting to use the internet a lot more for both school and leisure. As a parent, I try to stay on top of their online activities (see my previous post on internet safety) but I am not looking over their shoulder every minute that they are on the computer.

Especially troublesome is when there is a school project that they must research. When they do an internet search using Google or another search engine, there is no telling what type of results they may get.

In our home the search engine of choice is Google. Today I just discovered a small link at on Google’s homepage right next to the search box labelled “Preferences”. When you click on this there is an option called “Safe Search Filtering” where you can block pages containing offending content from your search results. This filter can be set to strict, moderate, or none.

While this is no substitute for parental supervision - it does contribute to internet safety and adds a small level of comfort.

Check it out!