Tips for Keeping Children Safe Online

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Author: Sharon Housley

There was once a time when you only had to worry about
children when they were outside or not at home. Those times
have changed. Strangers can now enter your home, without a
key or coming through a door. How you may ask? These
strangers enter your home using a keyboard. These strangers
can befriend your children online.

Social networking has become increasingly popular and
websites like Myspace have thrived with adolescents and
teens. While pedophiles may be the minority on these sites,
the threat of having a pedophile enter your home, under the
guise of being someone their not, is just too big of a
threat to ignore.

It may seem harmless enough, at first glance. I mean, what
do other web surfers really know about your child? They
might even live half a world away. How could they possibly
harm your child? Perhaps you might even see the educational
value of your child interacting with individuals from other
cultures and understanding the global nature of today's
world, but consider this...

Children online don't feel that these "friends" are
strangers. They "chat" with them daily. These people, who
parents consider strangers, are their friends. They
understand what the child is going through and they listen
in ways the parents never seem to. The recent riveting
testimony of a young boy that was drawn into online
pornography at the age of 13, should be a wake up call to
all parents. Computers and the Internet can be far more
dangerous than most parents ever imagine. The likelihood of
a child online will encounter strangers is far higher than a
stranger wandering into their backyard.

Parents warn their children about strangers as they grow up,
perhaps its time to redefine the term stranger. Consider the
following to protect your child, adolescent, or teenager
while online.

1. Webcams.
Do not allow your children to use a webcam unsupervised.
Children will often forget that the webcams are there or
even worse, what may seem harmless online flirting might
result in unwarranted or undesired attention from an
anonymous predator. Additionally, webcams have been tied to
home robberies where burglars viewed items of interest
through a webcam. A little online digging resulted in the
home address, and items were then stolen.

2. Common Area.
In spite of an adolescents or a teenagers need for privacy,
it is best to keep the computer in a family common area. It
might be helpful to explain to your child why it is
important that computers be out in the open. Children should
understand that using a computer is not a right, is a
privilege. Parents can and should supervise online activity.


3. Personal Information.
Personal information is just that, personal, and should not
be shared by children. As easy as that is to say, sometimes
children are often confused as to what constitutes personal
information. Educating children about what personal
information is, is just as important as educating them as
telling them not to share. Children need to understand that
just because someone asks for personal information doesn't
mean you have to tell them.

What is personal information? Knowing not to share your
location, name, age, address, phone number, town, password,
and schedule might seem obvious to children, but what many
don't realize is that predators will often piece together
various bits of information. A predator will aggregate data
to determine a child's location or true identity. Predators
are able to use IP tracking and the location of an online
web provider that you use might assist them in narrowing
down a location. Information related to sports events or
scheduled concerts will further allow a predator to
ascertain a child's location and personal information.

Provide adolescents and teenagers these tips in determining
what information is appropriate or inappropriate to share.
Tell them to ask themselves how the predator can use the
requested information? Is it necessary for them to have that
information? Why?

4. Crossing the Bounds.
It is easy to explain to a child that a stranger is someone
they don't know in the real world, but online the definition
becomes blurred. Is a friend of a friend online, a stranger?
If you have communicated X number of times with someone, are
they still a stranger? Assist your children in drawing lines
about who is appropriate to communicate with, and who is
not.

5. Candor.
When talking to children about surfing online, it is
important to be honest with them. Children have to
understand the dangers, but should not live in fear.
Balancing candor and fear might be tricky, but you know your
child best and keeping it real will help them navigate and
how to stay safe online.

6. Trust.
Trust online is a funny thing, just because someone says
something is true does not mean that it is. Bloggers and
online wikis are dealing with credibility issues, yet
individuals are often trusted until proven untrustworthy.

7. Identifying Information.
Instruct your child NEVER to share any identifying
information that includes phone numbers and addresses. And
http://www.small-business-software.net/anonymity-of-interne
finally ,consider how non-anonymous the web really is t.htm
.

8. Photos.
Children should not swap photos online. Exchanging photos is
unnecessary and puts children at a higher level of risk.
Additionally digital photographs can easily be edited by a
third party. An explicit online photo can haunt a child for
a lifetime.

9. Profiles.
Children should not complete profiles in blogging software
or social networks, like MySpace The profiles or hobbies can
often raise the interest of unwanted admirers.

10. Questionnaires/ Surveys.
Children should not complete questionnaires or surveys
online. The information requested may appear harmless, but
you do not know how the information will be used, it is good
practice to avoid completing any questionnaires or surveys.


11. Meeting.
It of course goes without saying that children should not
meet any individual that they converse with online.

12. Chat Rooms.
Chat rooms are playgrounds for sexual predators. The chat
room owners have no method to detect a lurking predator from
a child. As a result it is just a good practice to restrict
access to chat rooms.

13. Instant Messaging.
Adolescents and teenagers often want to communicate, whether
on the phone or via the Internet. Instant messaging is a
popular phenomenon for children. If you allow your child to
communicate using instant messaging, be sure to block
instant messaging from anyone unknown. Additionally, spot
check their buddy list to make sure that it has not been
altered. Use a tool like AOL where restrictions can be
implemented.

14. Online Games.
Often online games, will contain a chat component. The same
rules that apply to instant messaging should apply to the
online games and chatting. Rarely are filters available for
the online games and many children will encounter strangers
who evolve into friends through online play. Be leery and
weary.

The Internet is global and not governed by any single
entity. There are no limitations. By creating clear
boundaries for your children they will be able to take
advantage of this amazing vehicle without putting themselves
at risk.

About the Author:
Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll
http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing,
publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon
manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a
wireless text messaging software company.