Online Safety Tips
Top Ten Tips for Parents to Share with their Kids About Online Behavior
1. Talk with your children to agree what kind of sites they are allowed to visit.
Have open conversations with your children about the kinds of websites they are allowed to visit. Once you establish guidelines you then need to check to make sure that they stay within these agreed limits. Sometimes your children will stumble upon content that you do not want them to see
Unfortunately there are many websites on the Internet that actually ‘lure’ kids into their site. For instance, most kids spend a lot of time on youtube.com However, if your child mistakenly adds an extra y to the url (youytube.com) they are immediately whisked away to a very graphic XXX site. So even if your kids agree to certain limits they can easily land where they don’t want to be.
2. Keep your children out of unmonitored chat rooms and monitor where they go.
Most all kids are involved with a chat room or two. They ‘meet’ new friends virtually but in the virtual world you never really know who you are talking to. Sometimes these people are adults trying to gain the friendship and trust of young children. Additionally, children should stay away from chat rooms that allow sexual discussions.
Some chat rooms are monitored by an employee of the company or a volunteer. However, the chats can get fairly explicit. If the participants in that conversation are asked to leave the chat room they can simply use another form of communication to continue the conversation online. Chat rooms can be a dangerous place and parents need to talk to their kids about the potential dangers.
3. Place the computer in a well-trafficked area in the home where the whole family can use it.
While this practice can help with younger children parents need to also realize that kids today access the Internet in so many ways. While keeping the family computer in a central area helps, it is not a total solution.
The reality is that kids can go online almost anywhere: school, library, coffee shop, work or a friend’s house. They have devices such as cell phones, smart phones, consoles like X box and Play Station that can all connect to the Internet.
4. Set up very specific guidelines if you are going to allow your children to have accounts on social networking sites like MySpace,
Facebook and Twitter.
Be sure you have access to their account so you can monitor what they are posting and saying online. It is also a good idea to become their friend so you can actually monitor how and who they are interacting with. And remember, once it is posted it lives forever on the Internet-there is no delete or un-do.
A public university denied a woman a teaching degree because of a photo she posted on her MySpace with the caption “drunken pirate”. (The Wired Campus, 2008)
5. Never give out personal information online.
This includes things like,address, telephone number, the name or location of their school, or their parents' names. You also need to be careful of any photos that you might post.
A simple picture of you, in a cheerleading uniform, standing in front of your house could provide enough information for a stranger to physically locate you. Online predators have ways to innocently ask simple questions over a period of time that gives them enough information to know who you are and where you live.
6. Never, for any reason, agree to meet someone face to face that you met online.
Unless your parents are aware of the meeting and plan on going with you, this could be potentially very dangerous. Even if your parents are with you the meeting should take place in a public area.
You simply just don’t know who you are talking to online. Over the course of two years, MySpace kicked 90,000 known registered sex offenders off its website. (Schonfeld, 2009)
7. Make sure you have access to your child’s email password.
Very little information is required to set up an email account with services like Google or Yahoo. Basically you provide a name, age and a password and you can quickly and easily set up a free email account. If your child has additional email accounts they may be conversing with people they don’t want you to know about.
A 14 year old girl from Canada reported, “I was online in a chat room and this guy was sexually harassing me by saying stuff to me and he wouldn't leave me alone. i had to exit the chat room and shut down my email account so he couldn’t bother me”. (CyberBullying.us)
8. Did you realize that there is no way to verify your age online?
Porn sites, gambling sites, alcohol and tobacco and drug sites simply ask if you are 18 when you sign up. All anyone has to do is to check a box, agree that you are 18, and you are allowed to set up an account and view the site.
In January 2009 a Supreme Court decision took “online age verification” off the table as a requirement for Children Online Protection Act. So when it comes to the Internet we are pretty much stuck with trusting kids and adults to give their correct age.
9. Make sure your kids know to tell you about anything online that makes them uncomfortable.
Most kids who suffer or experience cyberbullying do not tell their parents as they are afraid they will lose their online privileges. They also do not report unwanted email or spam with sexually explicit materials.
10. Be sure to talk to your kids about cyber bullying.
Four out of 10 kids have been bullied online and five out of 10 have said mean things about others online. Cyber bullying continues to grow and the ultimate bade result can be bullycide or suicide. Also, most kids who suffer or experience cyberbullying do not tell their parents as they are afraid they will lose their online privileges.
After being bullied and tormented, 13 year old Megan Meir hanged herself. While it was thought that a teenaged boy was sendingin her messages on MySpace, it was actually a classmate’s mother who fabricated the profile and bullied 13 year of Meir.
We all know that the Internet is a cool place to hang with friends and check out new things. But don’t forget about the Internet’s risks and dangers. If you’re going to use the Web, do it safely! Here are some suggestions on what you should and shouldn’t be doing online to help protect you against the bad stuff.
Be careful online.
Never reveal personally – identifiable information online. A lot of creeps use the Internet to take advantage of other people, especially kids and teens. Never reveal any personally-identifiable information online, whether it’s on your profile page or in a blog, chatroom, instant messenger chat or email.
- Always use a screen name instead of your real name.
- Never give out your address, telephone number, hangout spots or links to other websites or pages where this information is available.
- Be careful about sending pictures to people you do not know very well.
- Never tell people personal or private information about your friends or family.
- Never assume you’re completely anonymous online. Even if you don’t put personal information online, there are different ways that people can still figure out who you are and where you live.
Never share your password with other people (except for your parents).
Your passwords to websites, email accounts and instant messenger services should not be shared with friends or strangers. Your friends may not be as safe as you are and may unknowingly subject you to danger. You should, however, share your passwords with your parents if they ask so they can make sure you’re using the Internet safely.
Never arrange meetings with strangers.
Just because you’ve seen a person’s picture and read his or her profile, does not mean you know them. Many people online lie about who they are and what their intentions are. Just because someone seems nice online, does not mean they really are. They could be trying to hurt you. Never arrange a meeting with a stranger you’ve met online. Even meeting a stranger in a crowded place could be dangerous as he could follow you home. If you wish to meet an online friend in person, talk to your parents and arrange a time and place where your friend can meet your parents first, just in case. If you are worried about your parents meeting one of your online friends, you probably shouldn’t be friends with them in the first place.
Don’t believe everything you read or see online.
Be wary of everything you see online unless it is from a trusted source. People lie about their age, who they are, what they look like, where they live, how they know you and what their interests are. Also, a lot of websites and emails contain information that is misleading or just plain untrue. If a person or deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Ask your parents to help you figure out what information is really true.
Don’t download files or software without your parents’ permission.
There are a lot of files on the Internet that are unsafe to download to a computer. Some files will bombard you with pop-up ads all day long. Some files will actually track everything you and your family does on your computer, including your logins, passwords and credit card information, which criminals then use to steal money from you and do other harm. There is no easy way to tell which files are bad and which are ok to download. That free desktop wallpaper you want to download might also steal your parents’ credit card information. Ask your parents before you download any files or software from the Internet.
Don’t respond to inappropriate messages or emails.
Some people send inappropriate messages just to see if you will respond. If you do, you are simply encouraging them to send more inappropriate material to you. Don’t respond to inappropriate messages. Instead, talk to your parents about how to report them to the right place.
Don’t post inappropriate content.
. If you post information about tennis, you will attract people who are interested in tennis. If you post inappropriate content or pictures, you will attract people who have inappropriate interests. If you post jokes, photos or other content that contain sexual references you will probably attract people who are only interested in talking about sex. Be mindful of what you are communicating to the rest of the online world through the content you put onto the Internet.
Be leery of personal questions from strangers.
People you don’t know who ask personal questions are often up to no good. Don’t continue communicating with strangers who ask you personal questions. Talk to your parents about how to block them from communicating with you and report them to the right place.
Don’t be bullied into fights.
People tend to say things online that they would never say in person. Some people even say rude and malicious things, sometimes just to see if you will respond. Don’t respond to these people. Instead, talk to your parents about how to block them from communicating with you and report them to the right place.
Don’t use adult sites.
There are some websites that kids just should not use. Don’t use websites that contain adult content or that facilitate communication with older adults. No matter how much you think you know about the Internet, there are some people and places you just aren’t ready to deal with. Enjoy websites that are designed for people your own age.
Understand what you put online will be there forever.
Assume that everything you put online—- every email you write, every picture you post, every blog or journal entry you post—- will be accessible on the Internet forever. Many search engines copy Internet pages and save them for viewing even after the pages are no longer online. Think about that before you post anything online. Do you really want pictures or blog entries to be seen 10 years from now?
Safe Internet Surfing Tips for Parents and Kids
