Nowadays children start to learn how to use computers as soon as they reach primary school.

Many PC owners with kids will already have given some thought to the matter of safety.

If yours flew the nest long ago, however, and visits from the youngest generation are limited to the odd weekend, it’s easier to forget the hazards surrounding a computer.

From protecting tiny tots from sockets to ensuring PC settings stay safe from teens trying out what they learned in IT class, this feature will cover each aspect of ensuring harmony between computers and kids.

We also round up some of the products available to protect younger children and fun ways to get them tapping away safely.

Teenage kicks
Older children and teenagers are less likely to need protecting from the physical hazards of computers.

Most will be used to working with PCs at school and their technical knowledge – not to mention their sense of humour – mean it’s a good idea to protect the computer from them, not the other way around.

The simplest way to go about this is by setting up a separate User Account in Windows XP and Vista for children who use the computer.

We explain how to do this in the step-by-step guide below, which also shows how to password-protect the main account to stop confidential files from being read.

We also show how to reach Windows Vista’s advanced Parental Control settings, which can be tweaked to ensure the right amount of freedom. These allow parents to control how long children use the computer for and at what time of day, what games and programs they use, and what websites they visit.

Another useful feature provided here is Activity Reports. These send a detailed account of the child’s computer use so that it is easy to see what they have been looking at and how long for. It is then easy to change settings according to the child’s particular behaviour, rather than second-guessing what they might be up to. If this sounds a bit sneaky, don’t worry – an icon appears on the desktop so that kids can see the feature is switched on.

Another alternative that doesn’t require Windows Vista is a free download called K9 Web Protection. Although this is limited in comparison with Vista’s Parental Controls settings, it nonetheless provides a good means of deciding what kids can get up to online.

Unsuitable websites can be password-protected, but be sure to choose something hard to guess so that children will not be able to get past the block. It can be set up so that certain categories – such as pornography, viruses and violence – are avoided. We have prepared a workshop showing how to install and use K9.

For younger kids who are still at the point where they are using the computer as a toy rather than a tool, Maddie is a free download that sets up a safe environment for them to bash the keyboard (although not too hard), use the mouse and generally muck about. It also disables the Windows key (to help protect settings) and can be tailored to suit each child’s needs.

Babytype is a similar program that can only be exited using the mouse, so it gives toddlers free range of the keyboard. It has five modes, allowing kids to make shapes, patterns and pictures appear, and noises to play each time a key is pressed. A free, 10-day demo version can be downloaded here.