Net viewing, safely

SADDLED AS they are with too many responsibilities, parents do not find much time to think or have enough guidance to monitor the activities of their children, although they might have engaged the young ones in useful pursuits. Many parents might have bought computers and put the kids on to the Internet, just as they got them hooked to TV years ago, and allowed them to explore the Net without guiding them properly or ensuring safety procedures for viewing Net content. Read the Seven Commandments on Internet safety for children in this guide to parents.

www.parentspitara.com

This site which considers the education of parents as vital has developed a browser called Krowser to weed out the unwanted and objectionable material available on the Net. The site discusses issues of how the television and Internet affect children and suggests ways to overcome them.

It provides comprehensive information on parenting, with an Indian perspective. Apart from media issues, it covers a gamut of topics, right from childbirth, growth, and schooling, to larger canvas like first aid, alternative medicine, and travel and leisure - all with child as the focus. The site offers an interactive toolbox that can be utilised for searching baby names, calculating delivery date and planning nursery clothes. For special children, there is a special place here and it contains a list of schools for them.

www.Saffronart.com

An art gallery on the information highway is no less than that of the physical one. Connoisseurs of art just zero in on their favourites wherever they are, taking pains to visit exhibitions, shops and galleries. Saffronart.com invites such people to view a collection of more than 2,000 paintings by Indian artists, all at one place. Before delving into the world of Indian art, the site gives an overview of it, including the various schools associated with it. Profiles of the artists help the viewer to just make the right click. A new artist is featured every month and his works introduced. Details of each piece of painting are provided and you can just buy it or add to your collection for future purchase. The nature of painting and the medium are explained in a glossary of art. Online auction is also held on the site. Cataloguing of paintings apart, it gives information on art events and exhibitions. The virtual gallery exhibition is a wonderful place to experience artistic images and it contains novel concepts of time and matter. Virtual installation by Baiju Parthan is a fantastic firebrand stuff that is not to be missed by any art or computer lover - it is simply a full-blooded, throbbing art. You can also buy books on art, posters and greetings designed by artists like M. F. Husain. The user- friendly site is a treasure chest for art lovers, as it contains rare works of art by old masters.

www.serialbooks.com

How does one keep pace with the growing number of books being published round the world? Go online, select the book you want to read and you get the first part of the book to read. Serialbooks.com helps publish new books in instalments - on the Internet. Readers have instant access to any listed book - with a free synopsis, and author profile and part one of the book. The instalment is chargeable. Books are downloaded in Abode Acrobat PDF format. Only new books from writers who have registered with the site are published. Each work is serialised. The writers are paid a percentage of the download fee for the chargeable part of the book. Writers pay a small fee as a contribution to the administration of the website. The site offers credit card payment facilities and instant download of chosen text which is attached to an email receipt. Each book will be displayed for at least three months. It will then be either renewed or moved to a backlist, where the synopsis will remain accessible.

Compiled by K. KIRUBANIDHI

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