There have been several chilling stories in the media about pedophile predators using the Internet to lure children. Yes, Internet can be a dangerous place for children but it is primarily a place of knowledge and entertainment. As such aim of the parents, like you, should be to guide and supervise the children’s use of internet and not to hinder its use altogether.

There are few things that parents can do to make internet a safe entertaining and educational source for children.

• Talk to your child about what they can access and cannot access openly. Articulate your concerns and why you are taking steps to supervise his or her internet use. Get your child to talk openly about what they did and are going to do online. Always keep the channels of communication open
• Be firm if you want to forbid something they have been doing, but always have good reasons and explain them to your children.
• Examine history of your child’s Web and email usage with their consent. See if there are any patterns.
• Use a software filter to block unwanted content. In addition you can restrict the sites that can be accessed by the children. However do not be dogmatic, because some of these filters can be crude in the way they block content; blocking breast cancer websites because they contain the word breast for instance. So be ready to open up content on need, say if the child needs to do research on cancer for a school project.
• Teach your child about things they can reveal about themselves online. Nothing personal should ever be revealed.
• Do not allow your child to make friends online with anyone without your first getting an opportunity to check them out. Ask your child to speak to you if someone is trying to make friends with them.
• Familiarize yourself with the websites your children visit.
• Google your child’s name or names. This will give you an idea about the overall web profile of the child.

These are only pointers, you should tailor them to your circumstances, your child’s nature, and the relationship you have with her or him.

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Tags: Internet, Safety

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 3:38 pm and is filed under Safety, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.