Internet Safety for Children

By Deborah Lambeth

There is a great deal of increased awareness about child safety in today’s society, such as teaching children how to deal with intense negative peer pressure, and implementing security measures to keep your home safe with alarm systems. In spite of this increased awareness, there could be one area that parents are overlooking—Internet safety.

Obviously with the dawn of the Internet, there is a wealth of information easily available for children to use in completing schoolwork assignments. Most schools are now supplying links for children to use in obtaining homework information, registering for courses, and even sending homework to their teacher. One has to wonder if the advent of the Internet and the use of it by educators has in fact proliferated the misuse of it by predators looking for children to take advantage of. So how does a parent keep their child safe? Here are some ideas to consider:

1. Keep the computer in a highly visible place. Some of the problems children get into are caused when the computer is located in their rooms. They can easily close the door, do whatever they want, go to whatever sites they want, and chat with whomever they want, without their parents being aware of what they’re doing. Move the computer to the den, for example, where there are others around and you can keep a visual check on what your child is doing on the Internet.

2. Consider having a time frame that your child can be on the Internet. Most of the information for research papers can be obtained in a short amount of time and consequently, your child does not have to stay on the Internet for hours at a time.

3. Do not allow your child to use chat rooms. Much of the lure of chat rooms is that it is possible to talk with more than one person at a time. A way to counter this is to invest in the conference call option you can sign up for on your home telephone. Some phone companies even offer this as a free option, or as part of a general calling plan you may already have. Conference calling (or three-way calling) allows your child to talk with up to two other people at the same time.

4. Install parental blocks on the computer. These are programs that allow a parent to block certain sites so their child cannot access them. Pornography sites, chat room sites, and violence-oriented sites are examples of the types of sites a parent would probably want to monitor and block. Most parental block programs require a password in order to access them. Guard your password and do not give it to your child or let your child see you if you log onto the controlled site.

5. Make a rule that nothing can be downloaded from the Internet without your permission. The problem with downloads is that they can open all kinds of things your child does not need to be exposed to. Many of the download sites have multiple pop-ups attached to them that can wreak havoc with the rest of your computer and potentially make your computer vulnerable to being attacked by viruses or hackers.

6. Talk with your neighbors and parents of other children to get them on board with your guidelines for computer use. There is safety in numbers—you stand to gain support from other parents in this area, and they gain support from you as well in their quest to keep their children safe.

7. Finally, and probably the most important of these suggestions is to tell your child to NEVER give out any information to anybody online, even in a seemingly innocent chat room. Make it clear to them that they should not tell anyone their name, address, social security number, age, sex, what grade they are in, what school they attend, or names of people they hang around with—NOTHING personal should ever be relayed over the Internet. One way to get your child in tune with this is for you make it very clear to your child what types of information are too personal to give out to anyone on the Internet. If necessary, make a list and post it near the computer in plain sight.

Hopefully with these suggestions, your child can enjoy the use of the computer and you can rest a little easier knowing that your child is being responsible when using the Internet. Just as you take steps to talk with your child about talking with strangers, and just as you protect your home and family in a multitude of ways, so must you protect your children from the potential dangers of the Internet. Additional information can be obtained from your child’s teachers, the local police department, and websites that provide useful parental information.