Online Safety Tips for Parents
The Internet can help children learn, explore, communicate, and be entertained. Unfortunately, other people can use the Internet to harm or exploit children. Here are some ways to protect your children:
Discuss online safety with your kids. Agree on house rules and post them near the computer monitor.
Put the computer in a common area—not the kids’ bedrooms. Let young children show you what they can do online and visit their favorite sites. Teach kids to never provide personal information without you present.
When completing homework, have children use child-friendly search engines. Options include www.askforkids.com and www.kids.yahoo.com. If you use Google, go to “preferences” and select “use strict filtering” to filter out mature images.
Prevent or monitor the use of chat rooms where 89% of sexual solicitations occur. Make sure they know it is okay to come to you if anything scary, hurtful, or uncomfortable happens while online.
To learn more check out:
www.getnetwise.com
www.wiredsafety.org
www.childrenpartnership.org