Keep your computer safe from kids and your kids safe from your computer

I'm always amazed at how many people, who work at home, allow their children to use their work computer. Kids should have their own computer to do school work or play games. (Personally, I believe that it should not connected to the internet.) It is my experience that games and work computers are not a good mix. Games involve installing extra drivers for game devices, pounding on keyboards and giving your computer mouse a run for its money. Kids on the internet download all kinds of trouble especially "free software". A good gaming computer also requires more in the way of hardware than a business computer. I can't tell you how often I had to install a new video card to help the parent of a crestfallen child who wanted to play the next game in a series. To protect their children, I have been recommending that my clients install a free program on their computer. Called K9 Web Protection from Blue Coat Systems http://www.bluecoat.com/ , it allows the administrator to block categories of sites that they don't want their children to see. It doesn't slow down the computer and as an added bonus it logs every site that is visited. It also allows you to prevent internet use during certain hours of the day. So if you want to protect your computer from your children, get them their own computer. If you want to protect your children, get K9. http://www.k9webprotection.com/