If you’re looking for a safe browser for Internet commerce, PayPal says you should stay away from Apple’s Safari.

In an interview with Michael Barrett, PayPal’s chief information security officer, the focus was on two specific features: phishing filters and EV-SSL support. Both Firefox and IE7 have phishing filters built in and turned on by default. IE7 has support built in for Extended Validation (EV-SSL), which shows a green address bar for authenticated sites; Firefox and Opera will in upcoming versions.

Safari has no phishing filter and Apple does not participate in the CA/Browser Forum, the group that developed EV-SSL.

“Apple, unfortunately, is lagging behind what they need to do, to protect their customers,” Barrett said. “Our recommendation at this point, to our customers, is use Internet Explorer 7 or 8 when it comes out, or Firefox 2 or Firefox 3, or indeed Opera.”

Barrett went further, echoing the thrust of VeriSign’s No More Abandoned Carts campaign, that the green bar instills confidence in users, claiming that IE7 users are noticeably less likely to abandon the login process. Confidence isn’t the same thing as security, but it’s not nothing. VeriSign says that similar effects have been observed by Overstock.com, DebtHelp.com, and now Scribendi.

When the kids were little you installed safety outlets, put a lock on the knife drawer, and padded sharp-edged furniture. Now that they’re older you can get rid of those old gadgets–and install a whole new round of safety tools on the computer. Parental control software lets you steer kids away from bad Web sites and bad choices.

There are plenty of different products for different parenting styles. You can lock the kids out of adult Web sites, control when they can use the computer, and limit their instant messaging to parentally-approved pals. Or you can eschew limits but log their every activity silently. Many of the products can send violation notifications while you’re away from home and even let you tweak parental control settings remotely. Which one’s right for you? Check out PC Magazine’s roundup of 12 Tools to Keep Kids Safe Online.