Category — Internet Safety

As the mother of two preteen boys who inherited my love of the internet, one of my big concerns is keeping my family safe online.

J, my 5 year old, loves playing games online, especially on PBS Kids and Yahoo Kids. Unfortunately, both of those sites have sections where you have to sign up to participate, and to a 5 year old, the sections you can’t get in always look like more fun.

W, my 10 year old, knows better than to join sites we haven’t approved yet, but 10 is a very social age and he loves talking with his friends…and with new friends online.

So for both boys, we have created three simple rules that they have to obey if they want to be online.

1) Never give your last name. This was one of the first rules I was taught when I first tried the internet and discovered MSN’s chat rooms, and it’s just as true now. For children under 13 especially, they should never give their last name online, even when registering for a new site. When a site asks for a last name, I’ll tell the boys to put in the initial or first 2 letters of our last name (some sites won’t accept 1 letter as an answer).

2) Keep your birth year secret. There are legitimate reasons why some sites need to know approximately how old you are, usually to make sure you’re old enough or young enough to be on that particular site. BUT giving away your full birthday information can make you vulnerable to identity theft. No, I’m not worried about someone stealing J’s identity right now. But how long will that site keep his information? I prefer to play it safe now so the boys don’t have to worry about it later.

3) Never give out our home address or phone number. This one sometimes seems like it should go without saying if you’re an adult. But children tend to view the world as a friendly place, especially when they think they’re interacting with other children.

Finally, both boys know they can ask us if they’re not sure about something, or think they may have a reason for us to make an exception to a rule.

How about you? What steps do you use to keep your family safe online?

photo via Blaugh

The Internet can be a fun place but it can also be dangerous. It is a lot of work to monitor, limit, and oversee the time kids spend on it but in the end, it is well worth the added protection and peace of mind for a parent. Here are five things every parent needs to know when it comes to their kids and Internet Safety.

1. Almost everyone lies on the Internet - From age to e-mails, from looks to jobs, everyone at some point lies on the Internet. The reasons are endless and folks are full of justifiable excuses no matter how innocent it may seem but the fact remains, you can trust no one that you don’t really know.

2. No one is totally safe on the Internet - No matter how many firewalls or parental controls one sets up once a profile is set, anyone can have access, even through another’s account. The best way to protect your kids is to keep a close watch on your child while they spend their time on the Internet.

3. Inappropriate content does not always make kids feel uncomfortable - Unfortunately, when it comes to kids and hormones, what adults would consider “bad” does not always make a kid feel uncomfortable. Inappropriate content sightings can occur on any computer, as any Internet user knows and it is important to let kids know exactly what is and what is not acceptable on the Internet. Even in classrooms kids have been found accessing sites that contain porn, violent content, games, music sharing and hate sites. Lack of moderating by a parent or teacher is key.

4. Kids are never to young to be cyberbullied - Cyberbullying can be more damaging than even playground bullying. There is more permanence in the written word and the appeal of no accountability on the Internet can cause kids to act in ways they otherwise would never do. To make matters worse, there is the concern now of adults harassing kids on the Internet. According to i-Safe, 53% of teens admitted they had said hurtful things to someone online, while 7% said they did it “quite often”. Cyber bullying is on its way to becoming a full fledged crime with up to a year in prison so keep a close watch on your kids and who they are connecting with.

5. No doesn’t always mean no on the Internet - How many times have you asked to be taken off of some list only to be contacted again and again? The same thing goes for the Internet. Just because someone un-subscribes or cancels an account does not mean your registration information is thrown away forever. Quite the contrary in fact, and many things can happen as a result. Your information could be sold to who-knows-where if it hasn’t been already, you could be personally contacted about your membership cancellation with pressure to re-join, or simply be listed to receive a lifelong supply of spam e-mails. Just because an account is deleted does not mean that information about you is not on other person’s account.

There is a delicate balance between “spying” and “knowing” what your child is doing on-line. Spying is not a form of communication and it is important that we, as parents, break down the communication barriers with our kids and really talk with them about where they are going on the Internet, who they are participating in the social networks with, and how much time they are spending on-line. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, their safety is more important than their privacy!