The Internet has become an indispensable part of life for many children and young people nowadays. Yet risks abound.

"Children must be protected from dangerous content," whether it's pornography or  51  of violence, says Axel Kossel of C'T magazine. Software is  52  handling a portion of that effort. But ultimately parents need to be involved.

Parents with limited Internet experience  53  be tempted to simply ban their children from using the Internet altogether.  54  educators  54  online security experts consider this a good solution.

The  55  is to prevent the child from viewing unsuitable content. One option is programs like SafetyKid that work with so-called whitelists. These allow children to enter only the addresses for pages that they are  56  permitted to use, Kossel explains. This shielding tactic is only suitable for very young children.

Programs built around blacklists sniff  57  violent or pornographic sites and block them.  58  the lists are constantly updated, they still have weaknesses: "They can't block everything, since thousands of new sites appear every day," Kossel says.

There is also free parental control software available on the Internet.

No program works absolutely reliably, Axel Kossel says.  59  that is because many children are savvier about the Internet than their parents. That allows them to find relatively easy ways around the software barriers.

The experts instead recommend  60  a "family PC" where everyone can surf together.