How to keep your children, teens safe online

INTERNET access can give children an academic edge, help them explore their interests, and stay connected with friends and family. The Internet can also be a dangerous place and if not properly supervised children can be exposed to inappropriate material and even become victims of online predators. However, with proper precautions and supervision your whole family can enjoy the benefits of the Internet.

Place computers with Internet access in a central location in the home. When computers are in a central location, they can be easily monitored, but if placed in private places such as bedrooms, children can quickly close inappropriate websites when they hear their parents coming.

Get rid of the webcam. Webcams can be a great way to communicate with your friends and family, but leaving a teen unsupervised with a webcam can lead to your child’s strip show debut.

Decide what online activities are age appropriate. Chat rooms, instant messaging, and websites such as YouTube, Myspace, and even Yahoo can be particularly dangerous for anybody under the age of 16. Any place where your child can be contacted privately by strangers is a potential lurking ground for predators. However, instant messaging and MySpace has become a popular form of communication. A reasonable compromise may be to allow your child to instant message/MySpace only people that they know in real life, and not new Internet friends.

Discuss online behaviour rules with your child. Write them down clearly and post them near the computer as a reminder. Instead of threatening your child that breaking the rules will mean that they must go to time-out, tell your child that breaking the rules will mean they lose Internet privileges. Be clear about what your child can and cannot do online and be sure to emphasise the importance of keeping personal information private. Children should never tell anyone online their address, phone number, full name, school name or show anyone pictures of themselves.

Invest in monitoring and filtering software.

There are programmes that can help you monitor your child’s activities and block inappropriate websites. However, be aware that these programmes do not replace a watchful parent and can easily be disabled by computer savvy teens.

Keep a close eye on behaviour. Check your browser history frequently. Finding that the browser history has been cleared may be a sign that your child has been up to something they shouldn’t. Check your child’s favourites. Visit the websites they visit and see what it’s like for yourself.

Be aware of the warning signs that something is wrong. If your child quickly closes programmes whenever you walk into the room or becomes very secretive about what they do online they are sending up a huge red flag that they are doing something they shouldn’t. Be especially wary if your child begins receiving phone calls that they are secretive about or starts receiving gifts in the mail from people you don’t know. Talk to your child. This is probably the most important step. Talk to your child about Internet safety and what can happen when people are not careful online. If your child goes online this is just as important as talking about smoking and drug use.