Norton Security doesn't block images

If you're relying on Parental Controls from your Norton Internet Security package to block images, I just found out that Norton doesn't do that great a job.

Sit down at your child's computer. All you have to do is to go to Google Images (if you have the Google toolbar, you can click on that little G with the arrow, and change it to "search images.")

Then try typing in "teens" just to see an example. You may get explicit pictures on your child's computer, even though NIS Parental Controls are installed and configured . That's because Symantec is better at blocking web sites than at blocking images.

There are other software packages that do a better job at filtering images, but if you don't want to shell out the bucks, here's a solution. You can use Google's SafeSearch filtering.

Go to google's web site (www.google.com). Click on that tiny link that says "preferences." Scroll down to SafeSearch filtering, and you'll see you have some choices. Click "strict filtering" for the most stringent filtering of images.

If your child uses other search engines besides Google, you'll need to change your preferences for each one.

Yahoo is a widely used search engine nowadays. To adjust Yahoo, go to the Yahoo home page (www.yahoo.com) and click "search" as if you're conducting an empty search. Then, at the bottom of the search page, click "search preferences." Look for "safe search" and click edit. You'll see your choices. Remember to click "save" when you're done.

Obviously, these settings can be explicitly mucked with, and locking them is a different topic for another day. But for the innocent kid who's just trying to do his homework and wishes not to be surprised by a pornographic image he never intended to find, "SafeSearch" works well.

If your child sometimes uses your computer, you might want to set up SafeSearch there, too.