Internet Safety Tips
Internet Safety Tips for Email, Websites, and Chat Rooms
As soon as a child develops reading, writing, and typing ability, their interest in email will begin to grow. Email provides a fun and convenient way to stay connected with friends and family.
Some parents allow their children to use email from a family account only, while others set up a separate account for the child to use. Most internet service providers offer some degree of parental control over accounts established for children, and these should definitely be taken advantage of.
It is a good idea to monitor your child’s email regularly. Make clear from the beginning that you will be doing so, and follow through. Open a discussion about anything ambiguous, suspicious, or involving an unknown party. Using account settings from your ISP, do not hesitate to block mail from any address that concerns you. Report all threatening, harassing, or suspicious email to your ISP.
Also, be sure to warn your child never to open mail from an unknown source. Viruses are commonly embedded in or attached to email, some with the potential to render a computer useless. Make it a rule that your child may only read mail sent from people you have approved, allowing you to make decisions about any other messages that land in his inbox.
You can find anything on the internet these days, and it is wise to assume that your kids can, too. By accident or out of curiosity, kids stumble across information that we would rather not have them exposed to.
If your child’s computer is not located in a public part of the house, or if he is permitted unsupervised computer use, it may be useful to consider filters or blocking software that limit the websites they can visit. Parents can adjust settings to restrict access to pornography, for instance, or sites that promote drug use or violence.
You can set your computer preferences to record internet activity for a specific period of time, allowing you to review the websites your child has visited. This information will allow you to adjust filters, and more importantly, to initiate conversations with your child about his viewing activity and the concerns and interests that motivate it.
If you can’t be in a roomful of like-minded peers, a chat room may be the next best thing. Chat rooms allow for convenient interaction and conversation, sometimes centering around a particular interest or theme, or intended for a particular age group.
Above all else, kids need to understand how easy it is for people to misrepresent themselves online. The mind abhors a vacuum; with only words on the screen, we tend to project an image and character to match those words, deluding ourselves into believing what we want to be true.
Law enforcement takes advantage of this tendency. Officials go online, posing as children, as a means of snagging predators, and the tactic has been highly effective. How much more vulnerable would a child be to the innocent persona that a predator might put forth?
Children who enjoy more freedom in their internet use must be mature enough to take precautions. Never reveal identifying information online, such as the name of your school or community, address, or phone number. Never agree to meet an online acquaintance, and always keep parents informed of invitations or suggestions about face-to-face meetings.
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