Fighting pornography in the computer is one of today’s parent’s most challenging battles. In a world where every type of information is easy accessible one mouse-click away, our children may accidentally stumble into porn content with a simple school research or while looking for cartoon characters. Using a porn filter is one of parent’s last resources to prevent kids from being exposed to graphic and sexually charged material in a very young age. A porn filter is software that acts similarly with anti virus and spyware blockers.

A porn filter works weeding out sites in which written material contain a predetermined list of “forbidden words” such as sex, fuck, porn or XXX. As websites need to use these words to appear on search engines results, they become relatively easy to track down. Unfortunately, a porn filter may fall into some internet traps too. There are websites that may disguise their content in a manner that the porn filter can’t read it. Or even worse, simulate being a different kind of site (a cartoon site, for instance) to attract the user.

But installing a porn filter does not guarantee total security to children. Besides websites that may be blocked with the use of porn filter, there are many applications such as peer to peer software that allow the free exchange of full files between different users. There are no software capable to read what’s inside every computer file, so there are no way to control what is being downloaded in a home computer by a third party.

Putting on a limit time for children to stay awake online and also establishing a maximum amount of time for children to use the computer are recommendations from specialists to curb exposure. Besides, placing the computer in a visible place to the whole family and of course, installing a good porn filter are also essential measures.