age. You won't be surprise that children younger than ten years would wants to go onto websites that will allow them to play games while chatting with their friends.
As their parent, you should shows some concerns about this technology trend that is affecting your child life to that you can keep your kids safe online. There is already cases report in the news where adults pose as kids in order to cause harm. Also, whatever your son or daughter does online; you will be liable under the law for. So as a parent, what should you do? Many parents are not computer savvy and they should be motivated to learned for their kids sake.
Here are some tips to help you parents to keep your kids safe online.
Learning More
Like any kind of activity, it is best you know what your kid is doing and the computer is no exception. You should sit down with your child and watch what he or she is doing. Try and get your kid to explain what is going on while they are still young. On your own time, do some research for yourself. There may be some things that your kid either forgot to mention or doesn't know about.
Keep The Computer in View
I am completely against kids having a computer in their room for two reasons. Keeping your computer in a high traffic area will encourage your kid not to hide and spend quality time with the family. Second, you are more available to spot trouble that your kid may not know he or she is in and your action will keep your kids safe online.
Talking to Your Kid
Have regular conversation with your kid what your expectations are. Let them know that the rules on the internet are the same as in your home. Let's be honest. Everyone (including children) is a little braver on the internet.
Monitoring and Blocking
Every parent should have monitoring and blocking software installed on their computers to reduce the potential of bad content coming in. All it takes is misspelling a word and your child may end up at an adult site. There are great software packages out there that will monitor every website your browser goes to and blocks the bad sites. For example, Windows Family Safety software or K9 Web Protection.
Social Networking
Nowadays, many teens are using Facebook and Myspace to communicate with their friends. There is so much that these sites are good for but a teen can get in a whole lot of trouble in these sites as well. It would be unrealistic to expect your teen to stay off as he or she would just go to a friend's house to access those sites. I recommend being a frequent reader of your teen's profile. Know what's going on. You should even approach your teen asking if you can be their friend on the site.
With all these tips to keep your kids safe online, you will have the situation under control. There is a little bit of learning involved to the whole process. Look at it this way. You have the opportunity to learn while protecting your kids. It's a win, win situation.
