Upgrade your own PC and Kids Internet Safety
Upgrade your own PC:
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Once you've been using your PC for a while, you might find you have an urge to start plugging things into it. Printers, scanners and mice are easy, they plug into the outside of the main box, but if you take things a step further you'll find you're wanting to use a digital video camera to make your own home movies, or you may even want to upgrade your PC's sound system or add more memory (ram). These more advanced steps require you to add bits of hardware to the inside of your PC, and its not as hard as you think.
* Follow the instructions that came with your computer on how to open it's lid
* Make sure you touch some metal on the computer case before you touch anything inside the PC to 'earth' yourself. Static electricity is like a lightning bolt to computer hardware.
* Locate the spare 'slots' inside the PC that match the bit of hardware you've bought and simply plug the card into the slot.
If you're using an up to date version of Windows, when you close the lid and turn the PC on, a message will automatically appear letting you know that the PC has found new hardware and has installed the software for it - or you'll be asked for a CD that would have come with the new hardware. Just follow the instructions and you're done!
If you're looking for good hardware deals, check out:
http://www.estore.com.au; http://www.dse.com.au; and http://www.ht.com.au
Kid Safety Online
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The Internet is packed to the rafters with unsuitable material for kids – and most adults too, come to think of it! This all comes from the Internet’s tendency to allow free speech without any sort of ‘big-brother’ regulation. So how do we protect the kids without being so strict that they learn to loathe using the PC?
According to recent findings by the Australian Bureau of Statistics the vast majority (95 per cent) of Australian children aged 5 to 14 use a computer and almost half had accessed the Internet in the past 12 months. In addition, 45% of households with home Internet access have children under 18 years of age.
Mega's Top 5 Safe Surfing Tips:
* put the PC in the busiest room of the house
* make it your mission to close the 'knowledge gap'!
* educate kids not to give out any personal details
* explain what to do if they become uncomfortable
* use parental controls, both built-in and bought software.
It is also a good idea to choose a service provider who offers an extra level of parental control - like AOL. With an AOL account, you get up to 7 different screen names which can be shared amongst the family. Parents can set each screen name up with different levels of security, depending on the age of the user. Lots of things can be customised, like access to web sites, instant messages, email, chat, newsgroups and downloads.
Visit http://www.aol.com.au
More Information on Kid Safety Online:
http://dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/Computers/Internet/Internet_Safety/
http://www.getnetwise.org/americalinksup/ - go to 'Good Stuff for Kids'
http://www.napcan.com.au - National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect
http://ninemsn.com.au/kids/help.asp
Great sites for kids:
http://www.yahooligans.com
http://www.ajkids.com
For my fact sheet archive, visit http://www.getmega.com/getmega/todayshow.html
