The internet and smart phones make it increasingly easy for anyone to get involved with alternate realities such as video games and e-chats, including children. Children are naturally trusting and often don't take enough precautions to shield themselves from inappropriate content or from older people who aim to take advantage of them from afar without leaving their condos. Toronto parents and their global counterparts, in their quest to protect their kids, often make use of safety devices such as parental controls.

Parental controls are special programs that allow parents to restrict their children's access to certain fonts of information, such as the internet or television. By entering their preferences for what the child should and should not be able to watch, parents can feel more secure about allowing their kids to entertain themselves in their Yorkville condos without direct supervision, because the program will block kids from accessing anything the parent has deemed inappropriate.

Most televisions come with a parental control function that allows parents to block certain channels by password protecting their access and cable and satellite television providers take it one step further by allowing parents to block individual shows through their DVRs. Kids often engage in the internet and online play on their game systems when alone in their Markham, Ontario real estate, and there are programs for restricting access here, too. Some operating systems, like Windows 7, even come with them preinstalled.