Do You Know What Your Kids Are Surfing on the Internet?

Computers and online services are now a large part of our children's lives. The Internet provides a vast amount of useful and educational information. It also holds potential for harm. Did you know that pornography, sex and nude are among the top search keywords today? Are you aware that hate groups and cults have websites, and that a quick click will return bomb-making instructions? Parents must provide guidance from the setup of the web browser to continued supervision of sites visited, e-mail and chat room activities.

The information within this section of our website will introduce parents to safe web surfing and different computer monitoring techniques.

Parents are encouraged to understand that they don't have to be the expert but they should set the ground rules and get involved with their child's online activities. Some common tips that are repeated whatever the medium are:

• Keep the computer in a shared room so you can see what the child is doing online.
• Ensure children are not using mobiles devices in their rooms when they should be sleeping.
• Ensure that your child knows the dangers of giving out personal information over the web and never does this.
• Talk to your kids, make sure they know the risks, get involved with your child's life online, learn with your child.
• Set rules about time online (recommended max 2 hours* screen time per day, including TV)
• Let your children know that not everything they read online is true. That goes for people in chat rooms and virtual worlds too, as people are not always who they say they are.
• Don't allow them to share personal pictures of themselves or others with strangers. Make sure that older children think about the consequences of their online actions and their online reputation.

*American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation

Did You Know???

• The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) became effective April 21, 2000. It states that commercial websites must obtain parental permission before collecting children's (under 13) personal information.
    
• A variety of filtering and blocking software is available and most work in the same way. Once installed, parents/guardians can restrict certain "key" words. Pages including these words will then be inaccessible.
   
• Most web browsers allow content rating to enforce parental control. Explore you menu options for the content rating feature.
    
• Check with the company that provides your Internet connection. Some may provide control or blocking features. Do a search for "Filtered ISP Providers" for more information.