Internet Safety
It is important for parents to discuss not only
the benefits, but more importantly the dangers of
surfing the net to their children. Teenagers may
unknowingly be exposed to internet conversations
that involve adult sexual predators.
Often, these predators pose as other teenagers,
when in fact they may be 30-50 years old or older.
They may gain the teen’s confidence and lure
them into giving out personal information or convincing
the teen to meet them personally.
Internet Safety
1. Keep your home computer in a common area – not in your child’s bedroom.
2. Supervise your child’s computer activities:
- Website visited
- Chatrooms
- Instant messages
3. Advise you children NEVER to give out their:
- Age, name, address, phone number
- Parent’s name or workplace
- Name of their school
- Password
4. Your child should be warned NEVER to:
- Agree to telephone anyone or
- Agree to meet in person or “in real life.”
5. Advise your child NEVER to send a picture of themselves to anyone.
Signs of risk
• Your child spends large amounts of time online advising you it’s for schoolwork.
• Your child receives lots of calls from people you don’t know.
• Your children become uneasy when you enter the room or quickly change computer screens.
• Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from people you don’t know.
• Your children have a free website e-mail address that can be accessed from any computer without your knowledge.
Parental controls
• Never let your children have their “own” password – you must be able to check their e-mails and e-mail address book.
• Review the recycle bin.
• Review the document file.
• Review your “history” file to find out what sites your child has visited.
• Perform a “find” function on your computer to locate:
- .jpg – image files
- .mpg – movie clips
- .avi – movie clips
• Review your child’s diskettes – they may not be “games”. Check for hidden diskettes because subjects send images of themselves of pornography and tell children to save the images to diskettes and hide them.
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