Internet Safety and Your Child

We are all aware that American children are often the most savvy computer users in the homes. Children are taught how to use computers from an early age and are not intimidated by computers. Most children learn how to use a computer and gain access to the internet at school, even if they are not taught at home. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recommends that both parents and children practice a few basic safety rules to protect children using the internet. In particular parents should:

1. Place the computer in a public room in the home where parents can supervise usage.
2. Instruct children never to:
   • Give out personal information online
   • Agree to meet with an online acquaintance without parental permission
   • Post a picture of themselves online, or email a picture of themselves without parental permission
3. Use some form of parental controls

The most important of these is the placement of the computer. With today’s hectic lifestyles, no parent can supervise their children all the time. But, by placing the computer in a public room in the home, parents can more easily monitor their child’s online activities. Placing the computer in a child’s bedroom is risky. It is comparable to putting a television in a child’s bedroom with access to adult programming, because the computer allows your child access to adult sites and chat rooms.

Next, parents need to emphasize to their children that a stranger is a stranger, and chatting with someone over the internet does not change that. Your child knows not to talk to strangers at a playground and the rules should be no different when they are online. They should never tell a stranger online their name, age, where they live, their phone number, the name of their school, or if they’re home alone. They should know that just a little personal information can help a stranger figure out where they live. Even relatively inexperienced computer users know how to use search engines to find a home address, even if all they know is the home phone number.

Children should also know that if they ever want to meet someone in person that they’ve chatted with online that they should only do so with their parents and in a very public meeting place. Anyone that your child should meet will agree to this type of arrangement.

Your children should also never send or post pictures of themselves online without parental permission. They need to understand that they can not be sure what someone will do with this picture or where it might subsequently be posted. There are several parental control programs available, i.e. “Cyber Sentinel”, that allow parents to block the types of sites that children can access as well as the type of information that they can give out. (More details on these programs are available from the NCEMC as well as from most internet providers.) Parents can monitor the websites that children are accessing form their computer just by checking their browser’s "history" or "cache" folder, which displays a listing of the websites visited from that computer.

CHATROOMS

The most popular, yet most dangerous areas of the Internet for children are chat rooms and personal profile website like “MySpace”. Chat rooms allow users to converse with other users in a real time format no matter where they are located. Your child selects a screen name and often sets up a “profile” that contains personal information about the child. This profile can be accessed by anyone using that online system. Pedophiles are particularly adept at using this information to lure children into giving them more information which can then be used to set up meetings with your child. The same is true for the personal profile websites, where users post pictures and detailed information about themselves, which is accessible, at the very least, by other users of the site. Parents should consider setting up their own profile on these sites so that they can familiarize themselves with their content and verify their child’s participation.

Even game rooms for children have a small version of chat running under the games so players can talk to each other. Children often feel comfortable divulging private information to other players on these game chat rooms, because they assume that the other players are just kids like themselves. These sites are often visited by predators who then lead children to speak to them in other chat rooms, and then convince them to talk to them over the telephone and then attempt to set up a face to face meeting.

CONCLUSION

There is no fool proof way of preventing strangers from talking to your child online or to keep your children from accessing undesirable websites. The only fool proof way to eliminate the threat would be to eliminate access to the internet. This is unrealistic because most children routinely need to access the internet in order to complete their schoolwork and communicate with friends. Consequently, they need to learn to safely navigate the internet so that it is a resource that they can use with confidence.

The best way to ensure your child’s internet safety is to educate yourself and to talk to your children. Tell them what the dangers are and what can happen. Also, tell you child that you know that they cannot always control the items that are sent to their computer, but that they should always tell you if anything improper is sent to them or if anyone asks them inappropriate questions or to share personal information. AN OPEN DIALOG BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR CHILD IS THE BEST FORM OF PARENTAL INTERNET CONTROL.

(For additional information, go to www.naperville.il.us – Public Safety/Youth Safety)