All of the major online services currently offer built-in parental controls for chat rooms, newsgroups, and downloads . Rooms are simply areas designated by the service to cater to specific topics. Yet, as any savvy user knows, they are not all that private. Newsgroups are similar to message boards. Many are not monitored and could contain information inappropriate for children.
Parents have several options.
Downloading is similar to copying a floppy disk onto a hard drive. Controls for AOL Users AOL provides parents with the option of creating master accounts for themselves and subaccounts for their children and other family members. This allows them to restrict access on sub-accounts. Parents also have the option of blocking software from all AOL libraries as well as the transfer of files from other sites. Controls for CompuServe Users.