Kendra D’Andrea pleaded guilty to production of explicit material on the Internet. Not for the first time either. Kendra D’Andrea already has a charge of federal child exploitation. She faces mandatory sentencing of 15 years in prison, up to 30 years maximum.

Predators like Kendra D’andrea and her live in ‘partner’ are repeat offenders of the worst kind. She actually used her

8 year-old daughter as the subject for her partner’s sick pleasure.

Many parents recoil at reports like this and wonder how they can protect their own children from exposure to such material that is flooding the Internet. The world wide web is a treasure trove of instant information, and a minefield of hidden dangers.

Kids are barraged with erotic pictures in everyday advertising. Now worse is easily found on their computers. For young children with little experience in knowing reality from fantasy some of these images are very disturbing.

Parents may try to monitor computer use or help with their homework but there are many hours of computer time that can’t be shared.

One method of control is to add web content filtering software such as Cyber Sitter that can be set up easily to block and limit access to many dubious sites. If the content filter is set to the most restrictive level it can also prevent access to some web email sites and to use at only certain times of the day, which allows parental scrutiny.

There are other times though when children access less restrictive public computers or friends’ PCs that do not have content filtering software. Consider also the increasing amount of images and video available on certain cell phones or iTouch video players.

All these media need to be assessed for risk of exposure and prudent restrictions put in place. It is the responsibility of parents to raise and protect their children, even in a world of instant pervasive communication. After all what is the alternative?