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Keeping Your Kids Safe on the Internet

Did you know that 80 percent of children who use email receive inappropriate, adult oriented SPAM? Did you know that 50 percent of children view the contents of the web without parental guidance? Do you know what your children are doing on the internet? You should. Children face many potential threats on the internet, and without proper parental guidance can be endangering themselves unknowingly.

Predators

Predators often frequent message boards and chat rooms geared towards popular children and teen interests. These predators pose as children and attempt to get their prey to divulge personal information, such as address and phone number. The predators will often attempt to arrange a meeting with the child. The child, thinking they are chatting with another child will often provide the predator with personal information and agree to meet. Parents should monitor their child's internet usage and stress to them to never give out their personal information to anyone over the internet.

Cyber-bullying

Sadly, bullying doesn't end at the playground. The internet provides bullies with another outlet to harass and harm their victims. Cyber-bullying can come in the form of "flaming" (negative and nasty responses to message board posts) to harassment and threats. Cyber-bullying can affect your child psychologically. Since the internet is anonymous, the child may not even know who exactly is harassing them thus adding to their anxiety.

Pornography

Since the dawn of the internet, having a child encounter pornography has been a contestant worry for parents. Pornographic links can appear by typing in even the most innocent search terms. There is also the issue of pornographic and adult oriented SPAM appearing in your child's inbox. To help prevent your children from encountering inappropriate material, observe them while they surf the internet, purchase a filtering program such as NetNanny, or if you have younger children download Kid Rocket. Kid Rocket is a free browser designed for kids, this browser only allows the child to access web sites that are preprogrammed by the parent.

Tips to Keep Your Children Safe

• Make your child ask permission to access the internet
• Have the computer set up in a family area, not in the child's bedroom
• Monitor your child while they surf the web
• Track your child's usage - check the computer's history frequently
• Make your child ask permission before they download an instant messaging program
• Know your child's screen name
• If your child is chatting or using a blog such as MySpace, monitor their account to make sure they are not putting themselves at risk by entering personal information.
• Ask if your child's school participate's in Gaggle.net; Gaggle provides students with a safe online community, featuring free filtered emails, and blogs.
• Tell your child to never give out any personal information, educate them of the risks involved with giving out personal information.
• If your internet service provider offers it, enable parental controls
• If your internet service or email service offers it, enable SPAM filtering
• Purchase filtering software such as NetNanny
• Download Kid Rocket, a free browser designed for kids. This browser only allows the child to access web sites that were preprogrammed by the parent.
• Visit Mc Gruff's Internet Safety Site with your child

For additional tips and information regarding child safety on the internet, please visit http://www.mcgruff.org/Grownups/is.htm.