Parental controls as defined in this website is anything that you use as a parent or guardian to help protect your child from being exposed to or harmed by the real dangers in our digital age.

P.I.A is here to educate and help you, navigate and understand what those dangers are and how to protect against them, and to also allow you and your child to enjoy all the benefits the web has to offer. We can point you to the tools and technology but you must act.

The first and most important thing we feel a parent or guardian must do is communicate with your child. There are ways around every parental control but if you are involved with your child then you may see the warnings or sense the danger before something bad may happen.

Parental controls may be employed on a number of different fronts. The menu item above Parental Controls contains info on what are the 5 main technology areas this website will deal with. You can read the overview of every section to understand them better.
 
Parental controls for Computers
Parental controls for Cell Phones
Parental controls for Game Consoles (PS3, XBOX, WII, etc..)
Parental controls for mp3 players
Parental controls for TV's

Parental controls must be age appropriate as well. Younger children need different rules and controls than teens. You may want your teen to have a facebook page or myspace and you may want to have your own facebook and become friends with your child and their friends so that you can monitor their activity. If you simply forbid it your child may have a friend at school create an account for them and you would never even know. Young children may need a filtering program that only allows them to visit specific sites that you control.

You can learn more about Social Networks and the other ways kids are communicating in this digital age under the Communication Portals section at the top.