Surfing the net has become a common and routine activity providing opportunity for good communication and fun. Good parenting practices are essential and no different on the internet than supervising children in any other activity. In order to protect children from harm on the internet, follow these simple rules.
-Get involved and communicate with your child
-Become more computer literate and savvy yourself
-Check out parental controls available on your online service
-Keep the computer in a “public” area in your home
-Monitor the amount of time your child spends on the internet, and at what times of day
-Tell your children to never give out personal information, including name, address, schools they attend or teacher’s names, parent’s names, etc.
-Regularly search the internet history on every computer with internet access in your home, and don’t be hesitate to question parents of other children your child may visit
-Very closely monitor chat rooms your child may visit
-Letting children use the internet unattached, particularly in chat rooms, is the equivalent of dropping them off in a strange city at 10 pm and saying “go make some new friends.”
-Have a serious talk with your children about the risk of posting racy pictures or sending them via text and cell phone. Once you hit the send button you can no longer control who receives that picture.
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