Parents are often accused of over-controlling their children, and taking away their liberties
contrary to the laws of freedom in their country. It is not always easy to see whether what
a parent controls and what a parent leaves to the decision making processes of the child, is
the best for the child in question. But one thing that goes without saying is that parents
must protect their children from the dangers of the Internet, especially since the Internet
is prevalent in so many homes in modern society, and since so many children are expected to
perform so many of their daily activities on a computer, which is connected to the Internet.
Parents must rise above the criticism of others and make their own decisions about what is
appropriate for their child, and not defer that kind of decision to the whims of the many.
This is where the notion of parental controls comes in. Parental controls are typically
software-based utilities that can assist the parent in controlling the nature of information
and data that comes from the Internet into the hands of the child. A parental control tool
for example may scan a hard disk for the presence of porn material or other unsuitable items,
and automatically sort them and prepare them for deletion by a suitably qualified adult. But
there are other types of parental controls, for example the well-known 'Internet filter' style
product that blocks access to websites and material that are not suitable for young viewers.