Protecting your kids on the Net
My 4 year-old son is showing signs that he'll be just like me and his dad. Although he hasn't started surfing the Net yet, he already knows how to log-in and go to his favorite site (Lego). He's been doing that for months now, and I'm proud (since he can already manage to do that alone) but at the same time apprehensive that he'll discover more than what he's supposed to discover in the Net. And unfortunately, we don't really have that much time to sit beside him while he's online playing. So, as our short-term solution to not leaving him alone on the Net, we bought him a Sony Playstation Lego game that he can play in the living room (but not so long), while my husband and I work in the same area. This is just a short-term solution, and we really have to think of better ways on how we can protect him in the future since we all know that the Net is crawling with (sick) sexual predators and is full of porno sites. I shudder at the thought of him discovering all these.
I searched the Net and found very useful sites that is very informative to us parents. It mostly teaches us the dangers of the Net, as well as safety tools that we can use to protect our kids.
First is the internet safety site of Enough.org, Protectkids.com. Interesting and informative, especially the topic on Stealth sites and misleading URLs
Pornographers purchase domain names such as the .com equivalent of a popular .gov or .org website, knowing full well that web surfers are likely to end up on their pornographic site instead of their desired destination
It's a good read for parents, and informs us the basics that we normally forget to tell our kids, such as not giving out personal information, etc.
Second is the FBI's A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety. Which informs you of the complexities of on-line child exploitation as well as contact information for the Local FBI Office and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Safekids.com which has a topic on Safe Blogging Tips for Teens, which is very appropriate and up to date since most teens have a MySpace account.
There are lots more that you can find in the Internet that can give you tips on how to protect your children. There are also programs that you can buy to restrict your child's adventures. So stand-up and be vigilant. Protect your kids from predators and the harms of the Net.
December 27th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I have two teenage kids of my own and the language my parents used with me has been modified with my own children to include the internet. It helps that we do go online and read so much via internet to learn what possibilities are out there for those pr predators.