- Kids should be warned against giving out any personal information in chat rooms, on forums or in emails to people they do not know personally. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says they should never reveal their name, address, phone number or school information. Parents should also tell their children not to post their photos on the Internet or send them to anyone they do not know personally. If someone is pressuring a child to reveal any of this information or to send a picture, she should report it to her parents immediately.
- Kids should be on the alert for possible cases in which a correspondent is lying about his identity, including his age and sex. Adult predators will often pretend to be another youngster, and even someone of another gender, to win a child's trust. Once they have struck up a friendship, they will try to get personal information or shift their conversations to inappropriate topics. The FBI says that parents should make their kids aware of this possibility and monitor their online friendships for any red flags.
- Kids should never arrange to meet anyone they meet on the Internet without their parents' knowledge and consent. Predators will work carefully to gain a child's trust and then attempt to arrange a secret meeting. Children should know that if an online acquaintance tries to set up a meeting and tells them to keep it secret, they should tell their parents immediately.
- Parents should monitor their children's Internet use. The computer should be in a central location where it can easily be seen by adults while the kids are using it. If this is difficult, or if an adult wants additional assurance that her kids are staying safe online, she can install a monitoring/filtering program like Net Nanny. Parents should have the passwords for their kids' email accounts and any social networking sites or other websites to which the kids belong.
- Kids should know that they can report any online problems to their parents or another trusted adult. This includes inappropriate chats, emails or photos being sent to them by someone, cyberbullying, threats, attempts to get personal information or to set up a meeting and anything else that makes them feel uncomfortable. Predators and bullies may try to convince the child that he will get in trouble if he tells someone. Make sure your kids know that this is not true and that you will help and support them if they ever have a problem online.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
My little Princess...
Well, a few years of drilling rules into my daughters head about the internet and here is the sum of the best information I could find for her to follow... She got a new HP EeePC for her birthday and she loves it. Now she's got access to her MSN again and facebook but will have restricted internet time and will be monitored closely by me and my squid proxy...
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