Keeping kids safe online

Last June, a 16-year-old girl was abducted by a predator who initially “met” her playing the online game World of Warcraft. As part of its decision to provide greater protection against predators, Facebook recently banned nearly 30,000 suspected predators from its network. In 2006, there were 4.2 million pornographic web sites, accounting for 12 percent of all web sites combined, according to TopTenReviews. Every day, the news is peppered with scary accounts of cyberbullying, cyberstalking and other situations that threaten children’s safety online. In the old days, parents were mostly concerned about their kids wandering off at the mall and being grabbed by a stranger. Today, Internet safety is growing in importance. Children are spending more time, at younger ages, playing web-based computer games and IMing their friends. And teenagers, grappling with increasing sexual curiosity, venture onto graphic pornographic sites, and are remarkably adept at finding “workarounds” to standard-issue safety filters offered by the large browser sites. Some of the simplest workarounds are often overlooked by parents—a block set up on AOL, for example, may not work if your child opts for another web browser.

Where to Start
Be honest. David Haadsma, CEO of Bsafeonline, advises parents to begin by talking to their children about the possible dangers of the Internet. The conversation should be frank, but the overriding message should be that your children can feel good about coming to you if they are uncertain about a website, a game or a person they are talking to online.

Enter their world. Playing Webkinz or Club Penguin might not be your cup of tea, but it’s helpful to know how these sites work. Are children’s identities kept hidden? What kind of parental permission is built into the registration process? Are there any marketing or advertising overtures? How does the site handle players who try to get personal information from other players? You’ll find that each site has varying degrees of security built in and you can make an informed decision about whether you want your child playing there or not.

Agree as a family to the basics. You and your children should agree upon some fundamental rules about playing on and using the Internet. Just like the oft-repeated warning, “Don’t talk to strangers,” these rules should become second nature to your children. For a helpful list of some rules to surf by, go to InternetSafety.com. Another fun way to get a handle on dos and don’ts for Internet Safety is The Safe Side’s “Internet Safety” DVD. It’s an entertaining way to present common-sense rules your children will find easy to understand and follow.

Parental Controls
The primary way to limit or prevent access to certain sites is through Internet filtering software. The best programs offer three things:

• Web control. Programs like Bsafeonline and Safe Eyes allow parents to choose web site categories (such as ecommerce, gaming, pornography, etc.) they wish to restrict. You can give each child a different set of restrictions, based on his or her login identity.
• Tamperproof reporting. This means nformation about where your children go is sent to your email address or as a text message. Also look for programs that can monitor IM sessions on the major services like AOL and Yahoo.
• Instant message controls. Besides the ability to monitor, parents may also want to restrict IM to predetermined friends and family. Bsafeonline has a popup message warning unknown message senders that they are being monitored by a PredAlert.

A Time for Everything
Playing and communicating on the computer can be fun for the whole family. Don’t let the kids forget, though, that there is more to life than surfing. If your children have a balanced life of play, work and relaxation both indoors and out, they will be less likely to log on to trouble.