I received the following pertinent question today from my parent Google group: 


Good Morning - what if anything can you tell me about the safety and security of the iPod touch?  Do you know if the access to the internet is completed unprotected, unable to put parental controls on?  And are there any other tracking or possible predatory threats?  I appreciate any information you could provide. 

Thanks so much for the great question.  There are inherent dangers whenever a child has unrestricted access to the Internet in any form, and the iPod touch is basically a handheld computer. There is software you can install that will monitor your child's activity on his cell phone... I am not sure if iPod security would be any different. 

I love this website for cell phone and iPhone monitoring software: 
http://www.pcsndreams.com/Pages/Sexting_Statistics.html 

According to what I found, there really are not too many parental controls for the iPod touch or iPhone yet.


You can go to Settings > Restrictions, then enter a passcode and set restrictions to access: 

• iPod songs with explicit lyrics 
  
• Safari 
  
• YouTube 
  
• iTunes 
  
• Installing Apps 
  
• Camera 
  

Unfortunately, except for the explicit iPod settings, these are strict restrictions to the use of these applications and no filtering. For example, restricting Safari means that you can't use the web browser at all, which removes many of the more useful features of the iPhone or Internet-enabled iPod Touch. 

The bottom line is that the iPod Touch is still a good choice for kids to listen to music, play games and use other applications.  However, until there are better parental controls, it might be safer to set the restrictions and leave its WiFi Internet connection off.   (Don't give your kids the password to your home WiFi network.   If you don't have a password, get one.)

I will create a movie for my Google Group Parents showing how to disable many features on the iPhone.  If you use the iPod Touch, the process will be very similar -  the only difference is that you need Wifi to text or send/receive media.

Photo image:  http://www.hightech-edge.com/turn-ipod-touch-into-iphone-use-voip/4591/