Okay, I recently went back over this article and saw the response to my name. So here is what I did: I connected and disconnected to the internet three times in a row, doing different actions each time. I benchmarked my computer's performance and ran diagnostics using advanced system care pro to determine different values of different areas that my computer was affected by. And here are the results:

Trial 1. Connected and Disconnected.
Viewed home page (Google Basic), went to CommonSenseMedia.org home.
Duration: 00:00:07.
PC's performance degraded by: 0.12%.
Advanced System Care detects: 89 problems, 7.8MB of junk files in the browser's allocated memory.

Cleared my Cache, deleted browsing history, corrected the problems.

Trial 2. Connected and Disconnected.
Viewed home page (Google Basic), went to Facebook.com home. Logged into Facebook. Checked my home page for a short while.
Duration: 00:02:32
PC's performance degraded by: 0.09% (I had defragmented all partitions and my registry in between my trials, so naturally the computer performance is slightly better).
Advanced System Care detects: 178 problems, 26.9MB of junk files in the browser's allocated memory.

Cleared my Cache, deleted browsing history, corrected the problems.

Trail 3 (This is where it gets fun). Connected and Disconnected.
Viewed home page (Google Basic), went to ArmorGames.com. Played ThingThing Arena 3. Noticed several dynamic ads to either side of the screen.
Duration: 00:12:19
PC's performance degraded by: 0.67%
Advanced System Care detects: 420 problems, 63.7MB of junk files in browser's allocated memory.

Cleared my Cache, deleted browsing history, corrected the problems.

Now, notice, these are single trials really (they do not build upon the impact of the last one as I correct everything before starting a new). Imagine not doing any maintenance, not clearing out any junk, not fixing the problems that a browser just naturally creates, for weeks, or months! It can truly build up, and then severely degrade performance, like I previously stated.

Also, a fun fact on the last trial, I picked up a Trojan from ArmorGames.com....the things I deal with to prove a point.

You know,because EVERY 11 year old wants to look at porn!

My Dad, often busts into my room completeley unexpectedly and does an "inspection" (I'm actually afraid he might do it right now). He ransackes into my room and goes on my computer and checks my browser history. I think it's unnecesary and degrading. Why? Well it's an awful invasion of privacy, and have you morons ever heard of the term "Let kids be kids"? This website is one of the reasons kids will have miserable childhoods.

Yes, it does seem CommonSenseMedia is promoting the invasion of privacy. Children will talk to you if they want to. Don't confront them, but ask them if they are all right and how their school life is doing.

Another thing, I haven't been on in a while. halospartan000: I assure you I am 12 years old. I find it hilarious that you say I sound 40.

I agree with many people posting - it's like a whole load of CommonSenseMedia articles are just screaming, "SPY ON YOUR KIDS! INVADE THEIR PRIVACY! /THEY'RE/ NOT SMART ENOUGH TO MAKE THEIR OWN CHOICES RESPONSIBLY!" I mean, geez. I'm not saying it's wrong to want to make sure your child is being exposed to the right type of media, that everything they do is age appropriateee..yeahh yeahh. :P In my opinion, unless they're acting suspicious, you shouldn't even THINK or reading their texts, checking their history, etc. And if you feel you need to? DON'T do it secretly! SAY something about it! Sneaking is the WORST possible thing you can do. It just ruins the trust in the relationship with your child. And another thing - if you're, like, nine (or maybe a little bit younger!) you can easily delete texts. You can easily delete browser history. It's not rocket science. It's one, maybe TWO clicks, honestly. And you have know way of knowing whether they deleted it or not...

Yeah, here's a great story about an insane parent.

My mom used to be really over-protective. She made the whole family use the same computer, and she followed that general rule about having it in the living room. My sister and I both used it, and we had to take turns.

Well, one day it broke and she took it in for a virus check and it had all this downloaded porn on it which had viruses, so she came home and she screamed at me and my sister about it for about an hour because she was so mad.

It wasn't me OR my sister. It was my dad, and he admitted it.

Now I have my own computer, and I don't look at porn on it.

Parents always assume kids are the stupid ones when it comes to everything, but you can never out-tech your kids. That's why my dad got our computer bogged down with viruses. Cause he's a retard parent who can't figure out that online porn is bad.

Even I, the child you're trying to censor, knew that one.

The end.

lilmissfrankie:

on your keyboard, press Ctrl + H (the letter key). Your history should come up. Organize it by Day (folders saying Today, Yesterday, Wednesday, etc.). That's the easiest way.

Then, whatever period of time you want to erase (say, you asked me how to do this, so you wanna erase todays) you right click that folder and select DELETE.

You must delete all the little folders to delete it ALL, but that usually isn't necessary. If I do it, I delete that days only :)

Good luck getting around your over-protective parents. If they read this site, they probably sleep in your closet at night to make sure you don't go get an inappropriate snack or something.

My reply was for bubbleboy, by the way...

ok. I see your point but... you're talking about being over-protective and not letting a three-year-old watch porn. So, where do you draw the line?. I mean, what about teenagers?. You think they should just be allowed to watch anything?... how do you go from over-protective to just protective?

I see my job as a parent as a coach for life and its challenges. But it is good to make sure the challenges are graduated, i.e. they increase in complexity as the kid matures. Also, I try to follow the precept of knowing where your child is and who they are with. That doesn't mean I always interfere, I just keep track of who my kid is. It is my job to make sure she is safe, and likewise doesn't put others at risk with her behaviors.

When my daughter was allowed on-line, we set clear ground rules. We would use a MacIntosh parental control monitor, so she could only go to places I inputted into her account. In that way, I previewed all the sites she wanted to access, and we would talk about them. I knew where she was going. Sometimes I thought the site was inappropriate for her. We would discuss it and make a decision together about the site.

As she has aged, now 12 years old, she is using the internet more, and accessing many more sites. She is generally responsible and trustworthy. She is a smart and curious kid. There is a whole wonderful world of information out there that she is accessing. She does lots of her homework on-line. I OCCASIONALLY CHECK HER BROWSER HISTORY, AS AGREED IN OUR GROUND RULES, AND I AM HAPPY I DO!

For example, at last check, I noticed she and her cousins had opened Facebook accounts (at 12, I think this is something she should have discussed with me first). Furthermore, on her Facebook site she publicly listed her birth date, telephone number, address and had pictures of herself goofing off with her cousins and friends. YIKES!!

We talked about why that was ONE, unsafe and TWO, against our basic ground rules. She didn't understand people other than her Facebook friends can access that info. That lack of sophistication/judgment showed me she wasn't ready for something like Facebook yet.

So we closed the account. I got out the ground-rules I had asked her to memorize 3 years earlier, and asked her to re-memorize them. NEVER GIVE OUT YOUR PRIVATE INFORMATION ON-LINE, UNLESS IT IS TO SOMEONE YOU ACTUALLY KNOW AND YOU CHECK WITH MOM FIRST!

The worst thing I can do as a parent is make all my kids' decisions for her. My goal is to raise a kid who has the good judgment and responsibility to make good decisions FOR HERSELF! But she isn't there yet. She is a kid, and needs help along with way. That's what parents are for. Sometimes we have to sit on our kids and establish authority to make sure you are safe. We love you. We care about you now, and care about what kind of person you will grow up to be. Your job is to seek independence, our job is to make sure you achieve it.

um anyways how do u clear your browsing history anyway?

parents, CANT U UNDERSTAND WE NEED OUR PRIVACY gosh

lol kaoricreator, your twelve years old!? u sound like ur forty or something lol nice

LOL so right!!

Being observant of your children and what they do is being a responsible parent, but the others here are right. Children are not pets, and although sometimes they need to really be put on leashes, it's really degrading to rummage through their texts and internet history often.

Once in a while is a good thing. It shows that you do trust them, but you're still the boss and deserve to know what's going on. It's just as important for them to trust you, and for them to trust you, you need to trust them.

Games and movies should always be closely observed, along with books though. It doesn't mean they're trying to read something bad. It may just mean their interests coincide with something that's not appropriate.

i find a lot about this site offensive. especially this article. kids are people, not pets. parents are parents, not masters. when will leashes become required for kids? seriously guys, cut kids some slack

OMG!!!!!! really?!?!?!?!?!?
1st yall want to read our txt
now your going to look @ what we are searching???? honestly the only place we can be our self is at school!!!! thnks 4 ruing our lives we love you too... LET ME TELL YOU!!!!!!!!!

omg i cant wait til im 18 outta da house babyyyy!!!!:) see ya

Ughhh just leave us alone! We have brains you know, and use them to clear history from the browser on our own.It's not complicated at all. Maybe you should trust us,or at least stop thinking we're stupid.:)

god! Invasion of privacy much. Cant parents just trust us?

Go to "tools" then to Internet options. on there you will find ways to delete the history and the cookies.just gave you the instrutions to delete history

PS the grandama in the video has her g-string in a bunch

Wow theres a thing called privacey!!! I seriously hope one of you tight ass parents or the stupid jerk who wrote this blog's kids turns a rebel and starts accting like a crazy dude because u have sheiled them from the real world!! Teens are going to look at porn and crap let them be teens!!

Hmmm...Violating kids privacy. check. Ruining there trust. Check. Having them make fun of there parents at school. Check. FYI FOR IDIOTS. THEY CAN DELETE HISTORY AND COME UP WITH A REASON. THERE ARE SOME GAMES THAT DONT LET YOU PLAY TWICE (such as a demo) THAT DOESNT LET YOU PLAY TWICE. PARENTS BEING IDIOTS. CHECK.

Right, because violating your kids privacy and destroying any feelings of trust they have torwards you is worth it if it means keeping your kids safe from boobs.

This website sometimes annoys me with its blatant distrusting of kids, but this is just too much.

Has nobody here heard of "private browsing/ incognito mode?
*sigh*

FreedomFromCensorship is right. Just thought I'd give him a shout-out! :)

Common Sense, your heart is in the right place. You want children to be safe, but this is just agging parents on to blatantly invade their kids' privacy. Parents, there comes a time when you need to cut the cord. Exposing your children to the world is beneficial, not harmful. I can't imagine how I would view the world if I were ober-sheltered, and things were foreign to me. I'm not telling you to show your three-year-old porn, just saying that there is such thing as over-protective.

As far as I can tell, this article is yelling: SPY ON YOUR KIDS!!!!!!!. "Common Sense" Media; please make it so that your so called "safety tips" don't invade our privacy, don't involve spying on kids, and make sense! Remember that we have to be exposed to the world to learn about it.

This is your conscience speaking.

I agree with annoyed14, there's no way you are going to be able to block a growing teen from wanting to view sexual material. Even if you go dictator style on them, they will still think about it, and there's nothing you over reactive parents can do about it. You can move the computer into the living room, but that's not stopping your teen from thinking about sex, you can tell him not to, but that will never work either. Parents need to get over the fact that their own kids are going to eventually grow up like they did themselves, and sexual interests are apart of growing up. Why is it so taboo anyway? Sex is a natural part of life, and its pleasurable attributes are not to be hidden by them. Just teach your kids to wait for sex until they can support a child and a home, and that masturbation is a natural process of exploring one's own body sexually during their puberty years.

I can't believe that you are willingly spying on your kids! What's the worst that could happen if he saw sex or something online? He's going to learn about it someday, why do you care? And filtering stuff from kids just makes them more curious.

Every workaround has another way to defeat it.

Set a boot password on the bios... oops looks like no booting alternate OSes for you.

You could go round and round with your kid hoping to out tech him (good luck). But fortunately we parents have one card they can't trump. We get to set the rules and policy in the house. If your kid is going so far as to boot another operating system, maybe it's time to move the PC into the kitchen, main TV room or your own bedroom.

It probably also doesn't hurt to have a discussion with your kid about why you don't want this to be viewed. A hard lesson to learn on the internet is that you can't unsee something that you wish you hadn't. It takes a sleepless night haunted by the image/video/article you saw the day before to really learn that lesson.

setting a flash drive to boot up into a protable Linux distro allows one to bypass any measure that you can do in Windows to find out what sites a person has been on.

HAHA, common sense you amaze me to this day with your idiocy. Oh that was rich, simply a comedy goldmine. You don't people really learn do you? The web is evolving much more quickly than your parenting "Solutions" can censor things.

FYI www.badsite.com is a made up example don't actually click it its stupid

its easy to only delete certain websites. ex. you're not allowed on www.badsite.com. you go to the history, right click www.badsite.com and click delete p.s. it will show sites like google as folders and if you click them it will show everything searched on google

This video article is inaccurate for current versions of Firefox and Chrome. Both now have a "smart bar" that shows the sites that it thinks you are most likely to revisit based upon your earlier habbits. For example, if you visit CNN.com evey day, it will likely offer CNN near the top of the list even if you've visited 100 other web sites since going there last.

For this reason, clicking the arrow next to that bar is no longer an effective way to get a short history. Instead, learn to bring up the browsers actual history. On most browsers it can by accessed by pressing [Ctrl+H].

Do not fool yourself into thinking that the browser history is an effective monitoring tool. It is not. At most it is a quick glance at what's been going on. Any kid over the age of 10 (maybe less) can hide traffic from the history if he wishes to.

If checking the browser history does reveal any unacceptable browsing, do not let your secret slip out. Saying "I saw this in your history" might as well be reworded as "Make sure the next time you do this it doesn't show up in your history." The easiest way to bypass the history is to use a different browser than your parents use.

There is also no significant performance lost by keeping your history in tact, user yetijones is full of baloney in my opinion. If performance was that much of an issue he would take steps to reduce or clear the cache, not the history and unless you're editing media for Disney/Pixar or compiling code for Microsoft then it isn't having a significant impact on performance. The only reason to clear your History is for privacy (that's not always a bad thing, maybe you were shopping online for Christmas gifts and don't want the others to see what they're getting, that's a great reason to clear the history. That's also a heads up to parents who shop online, kids don't have to look in the basement for a sneak peak at their gifts, if you're buying online, they may already know what you've been shopping for by checking YOUR browser history).

There are numerous things to comment on, some of which I learned the hard way. First, a kid can figure out how to selectively delete items from history. Then there would be activity that looks normal, but you would not see the bad stuff. If you Google how to prevent this you can find a registry entry that can be made to block clearing history in IE. I'm not sure how to do that on Firefox, Chrome, etc. Also, I learned that you can download Youtube videos from RealPlayer without going through a browser, so no history. You can disable this feature as well. It's a constant battle.

Some of us also like to clear our browsing history because it gets rid of unnecessary junk files that slow down your PC, and in turn, absolutely decimate computer performance (for high end tasks, such as media compilation, multitasking, and of course, GAMING). So just a heads up: do not be so quick to assume the history is gone for malevolent reasons.