Your Kids

Nine Tips For Keeping Your Children Safe Online

Posted: 8/5/2010

Good communication is key to online safety. Parental controls should be openly discussed with children so everyone understands how they work.

(NAPSI) - The Internet can open an avenue of knowledge to your children. But just as you wouldn't send them off into the real world with no sense of direction, guiding them along their path in the virtual world is equally necessary. The smart approach to protecting your children from Internet dangers is to teach them how to safely navigate the Web. Here are a few helpful tips from the online safety experts at BitDefender.com:

1. Parental controls are an important part of staying safe online. They let parents block inappropriate websites and even keep tabs on who their kids are chatting with. So children don't feel like they're being "spied" on, parental controls should be openly discussed with children so that everyone understands exactly how they work to shield kids from Web dangers.

2. PCs should be placed in an area where an adult can keep an eye on the monitor; for example, in the living room.

3. When creating accounts for online social communities, such as Facebook®, parents should study each site's privacy features and compile lists of trustworthy individuals with whom children are safe to communicate.

4. Children should never meet online acquaintances in the real world without a parent present.

5. Teach children to always end conversations they find uncomfortable and how to do so. Should someone on the Web--even a friend--make them feel scared, confused, trapped, offended or threatened, they should find an adult to talk to.

6. Help children identify e-mails that contain spam or obscene or aggressive messages, and make sure they know to refrain from forwarding these kinds of e-mails or chain messages to friends.

7. Know the chat lingo; e.g., P911: my parents are coming; PA: parent alert; PAL: parents are listening; TAW: teachers are watching. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides a list of such acronyms.

8. Children should understand that not everything they see or hear on the Internet is true, and that the information people post/volunteer about themselves is not always trustworthy.

9. Above all, talk to your children, without judgment, about what they're doing online, who they're meeting, how they're staying safe, and whether you can help with anything.

For more information, visit www.bitdefender.com.

photo credit: iStockphoto

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