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HOW TO PROTECT YOUR COMPUTER

Regardless of if you have found evidence of pornography on your computer, you should take steps to protect your family by utilizing some computer defenses.  There are several categories of defense that you need to use.  Each one fulfills a different purpose and offers a different layer of protection.

• VIRUS PROTECTION - How does this relate to pornography?  Porn and sex-related sites are some of the biggest sources of viruses.  Also emails with pornographic subject and content often carry viruses.  In addition, viruses will often allow disreputable people to use your computer to send out more emails.  They also leave portals into your computer, so they can continue to send pop-ups.  You need to install a virus protection software to keep these out.  Some examples are Norton Anti-Virus and MacAfee.  Also, make it a point to never open or reply to a spam email, which will alert the sender that you are a viable recipient.  And never ever ever ever open an attachment on an email from someone you do not know.  That is how most email viruses are spread.  And be careful when you put your personal information out on the web.  Many sites asking for information are not legitimate.  A good step is to have a disposable email address that you can delete or ignore for online forms.
  
• SPYWARE BLOCKER AND REMOVER - In many ways, with more people becoming aware of and careful with viruses, spyware has become the new computer villain of choice.  These are pieces of software that are installed on your computer without you ever knowing or approving.  They track your web habits, and send information to the designer or installer.  Some are called data miners, which will try to send personal information to solicitors.  There are even some out there now that will try to keep you from being able to install some protective software.  Find a good Blocker/Remover program like Windows Defender, AdAware, or Spybot Search and Destroy and install it.  Set it up to check often, just like a virus scan.
• CONTENT CONTROL SOFTWARE - This can be as simple as changing your Internet Explorer settings (which will often drive everyone crazy).  This also could be installing something like Safe Eyes, BeSafe, or Net Nanny.  These softwares actually will block access to sites with offensive or sexual words.  Some of them (like Safe Eyes) you can adjust to add specific sites or words to the blocking.
• ACCOUNTABILITY SOFTWARE - This is a different level of protection - where you will actually receive an email of every inappropriate site that was visited.  Programs like Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and X3 Watch will keep track of where internet surfers go and then send a report to their designated accountability partner.  Some of them will also let that partner know if the program is turned off.

You need to understand that all of these steps can be bypassed.  People who have spent a lot of time on computers looking at porn have learned to cover their tracks.  They also know their way around things.  However, these steps can stop a young person from ever getting to the place where they develop a problem.  These things will also give speed bumps - places for a person to really consider if they want to follow through on looking at the sexual imagery.  No step is a perfect solution in eveyr case.  But that doesn't mean to do NOTHING.  Instead, it mean to be very vigilent and to make sure that you are also focusing on changing the heart - so that the desires is to remain pure insead of diving into lustful activities.