Be Cautious - Be Safe
KNOWING THE DANGERS
If you are not sure about what you should be looking out for
then this will explain some of the risks and what you should
do to avoid them. The biggest risk by far is the use of chat
rooms, especially ones that are not moderated. Many chat rooms have closed down due to abuse, like those previously operated by MSN. People online
can hide their real identity and age. These places called
"Chat Rooms" allow people to "meet" and
have conversations about many things from music, sport
and even TV programs, everything that is typed can be seen
instantly on screen by anyone in the chat room.
There are hundreds of chat rooms in use on the Internet and
most of the time they are completely harmless and lots of
fun for the users. The only problem with a chat room is that
you can't tell who anybody is, and so there is a small risk
that they can be used by pedophiles or sex abusers looking
for victims. It is easy for someone to pose as a teenager
and create a friendship which they could use to eventually
meet a child or even teenager. To this effect it is a rule
to NEVER reveal any personal details like
full name, telephone number, address, mobile number and even
email address. Here are a few things to remember at ALL times:
- People online may
not be who they say they are.
- Take computers out of kids' rooms and put them into public
areas such as the living room.
- Talk to your children about Internet safety. Let them know that it's OK to tell you if they have a problem.
- To remind children
and teenagers to report anything that makes them uncomfortable
to an adult.
- Never meet someone
offline unless you are sure you know who they are, and then
only in a public place with a friend.
- Never give out personal
information and that includes your school.
- Use software to help you protect your child. Monitoring
software gives you the ability to review your child's
Internet usage. Even if you don't look at each and every
email or instant message they send, you'll have a good idea
if they are making smart choices online.
UNDESIRABLE CONTENT
Another big concern are the amount of
websites that have adult content, or content that may be illegal.
Discussing the potential dangers with your children needs
care and sensitivity and involves helping them to see the
dangers for themselves without making it awkward for you or
the children. Most children will respond more positively if
you encourage them to be smart or "cool" on the
Internet rather than giving them a list of things they just
shouldn't do. The best way is to spend some time using the
internet with them, take an interest in the way your kids
use the internet and use websites. If you would like to know
more about protecting your children further with some great
software click here.
If all of that seems like hard work you could always settle
for a safe ISP. There are plenty of family-friendly services
that will do the filtering for you and so save you time in
teaching children how to surf safely, but then again this
is not as much fun as joining in with your children.
Be Safe With email
Although email is a great way of communicating, it can have
it's problems. Firstly, and the most obvious is that Spammers
can send very offensive material via email. Another thing
with email is that it can be used for bullying, although this
is not as bad at the moment as Spam. Blocking access using
Outlook Express for instance is rather difficult and you would
be better of using email from somewhere safe. For
a small fee you get safe, web based email for your child.
They can only receive emails from email addresses that you
have authorised, everything else gets sent to your email address
to vet before your child sees it. This is a great way to check
to make sure they are not talking to someone they shouldn't
be.
What You Can Do
One of the first things you can do is make sure your computer
is not in a spare room or even bedroom. Your computer should
be in the living room or a place that is populated by someone
most of the time so that you can keep an eye on what your
children are doing. Make sure that if you have a webcam it
is also unplugged and nowhere near your computer so that the
temptation is not their for your children to use it if asked
by someone they may be chatting to. We all like our privacy so it is a good idea to make sure no one can keep on turning around or snooping to much at the activity or it could cause friction and so lead to secret surfing.
Another important step you can take is to install web-filtering
software on your own computer. With this type of software
you have full control of what information can be viewed by
children. Most of the products available support multiple
family members, so you can be more lenient with a teenager
and tougher with a young child. This way you know that the software is doing the work and children will not feel as if you are in their personal space and are trusting them.
We hope that this helps you to understand a bit more about
protecting your children. If you have any good websites for
children or teenagers that you have used why not let us know
so we can check it out. Software to help protect your children
can be found here.
