…I can tell you, that’s not what she found.  I’m talking about my nine year old daughter and what she found was enough to make me a little uncomfortable.

So what is a mother to do?

Both of my children have their own computer and internet access and my rule has always been that computers are not located in bedrooms.  Their computers are in my office; we each have a corner of the office and I set this rule so that I could monitor their online useage and what they were looking at.  (Come on now, I have a 12 year old boy… I know, I don’t want to think about it either.)

Knowing the dangers of the internet, I felt that keeping the computers where I could see them, adn the sufers sitting infront of them, would be sufficient.  Couple that with two children who understand my rules and have never not followed the rules and ask before going to any random website, I had a sense of security with my children online.

Until the day that Samara went looking for Hannah Montanna videos and found someone who might have been named Hannah, but it wasn’t what my 9 year old expected.  I was working and half paying attention but caught movement out of the corner of my eye.  It was no t movement that a 9 year old needed to see.

I freaked.  I’m sure I scared her.  I made her tell me exactly how she got to that site and sure enough I recounted her steps and found the same thing.

Immediately, I called the BFF and told her what happened and she suggested that I get a program to put on the computers that would help monitor and block things that my children shouldn’t see.

I did some research and then Mom Central asked me if I would check out Norton Online Family.  Norton Online Family gives parents the tools to protect kids online and connect with their online lives.

A few features:

• ability to block sites and monitor activity
• simple, one time set up — customize the internet based on your child’s maturity level
• Easy to use and access — you can see what you’re kids are doing from anywhere in the world, as long as you have internet access
• Clear reporting — it’s all done in date order and strips out all the stuff that you don’t need to see
• Convenient Website Control — you can filter out more than 40 topic categories, all with the click of the mouse
• Secured Personal Information - track, report and prevent personal info that your child might try to send (either on purpose or on accident) thru email, IM or on a social networking site
• Access to Social Network Info — monitor their social networking accounts to see how they represent themselves, how often they log in and when
• Real-time messaging — catch them on a site?  Message with them right then and there to discuss the dangers
• True Transparency — you set the house rules and the kids can see them right away.  It also notifies the kids that Norton Online Family is running so there’s no stealth mode
• Custom Alerts — need to know when they’ve spent all their time or if they’re on myspace when they’re grounded?  You can get an email immediately so that you can deal with it right then
• Useful time management — limit their usage or shut it off at a certain time…

Norton Online Family is in Beta mode right now and will be rolling out this spring but thanks to Mom Central and Norton, you can get a sneak peak right now by visiting the website.

Don’t waste anytime.  It’s a fangerous world out there with the kids and the internet and so many more avenues of temptation than we ever had.

Our kids are worth it.

Until next time…

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