Educate yourself and your children about online dangers. Our children being smarter than we are about the Internet is no longer acceptable.

Know the Statistics – www.protectkids.com
There are 1.3 million pornography sites online and 97% do not require adult verification, 66% do not include even a warning of adult content
Even though child pornography is illegal worldwide, there are still more than 100,000 web sites that offer it and more than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted to the Internet every week
70% of teens online have accidentally come across pornography on the Web
1 in 33 children online received AGGRESSIVE sexual solicitation (asked to meet, called them via phone, sent mail, money or gifts), June 2000

Microsoft Family Site – web safety tips, online slang, online safety video - http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/default.mspx

District of Attorney – County of Los Angeles – 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Act, web tracking software http://da.co.la.ca.us/pok/im.htm

Create a family contract by age and make them sign it. Set time limits, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/children/famwebrules.mspx

Know what your school’s policy is.

Set Parental Controls on your web browser – the LAPD site tells you how, but you can go to your web browsers web site and get instructutions

Place your child’s computer in an open area.

Make your child’s home page a kid friendly search engine such as the following. These are database engines, not crawlers so the content is monitored and approved.

http://kids.msn.com/kidz/default.aspx

http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/

Set acceptable web sites up in the favorites folder and allow them to go to those sites only. Do not allow them to delete the web history.


Instant Messaging - This is a big bone of contention for me personally. 89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages. If your child doesn’t talk on the phone to their friends on a regular basis, they don’t need instant messaging. The younger children can be trapped into giving out personal information without even knowing it. Let’s face it, pedophiles are adults and smarter than our children.
Instant Messaging allows for the immediate dissemination of significant personal information. When your child signs up for an IM account, he or she is asked to fill out a personal profile that asks for key identifying information on the account holder. This personal profile is then placed in an Internet directory that can be viewed by all. The directory can be searched by name, date of birth, gender, and interests. Consequently, an unsuspecting child can effectively place himself or herself in a position to receive unsolicited offers of sex, pornography, and other dubious material.
Chat Rooms and Newsgroups - One in five children who use computer chatrooms have been approached over the Internet by pedophiles. Let’s put that in terms we can relate to: your child’s class size is roughly 30 students – six of them have been approached. Frankly, there is no need for them to be in these places online. The risks are too great.

Be ware of library access – if your child is asking to go to the library all the time, be concerned.