Guidelines
for Keeping Your Kids Safe
It
can be difficult to keep your kids completely safe online. Even if you set up
parental controls on your home computer, your kids will use many other
computers that don't have parental controls. Therefore, to keep your kids safe,
you'll need to teach them to make good decisions online — even when you're not
around.
Below
are some general tips that you can use when teaching your kids about online
safety:
- Learn everything you can
about the internet. Being
familiar with the internet will not only help you understand the risks; it
will also help you talk to your kids.
- Set standards for what your kids can and cannot do online. It's
important to make rules for your kids so they know what's expected of
them. Don't wait until something bad happens to start creating guidelines.
- Teach your kids to keep personal information private. It's
usually a bad idea to post personal information online such as phone
numbers, addresses, or credit cards. If a criminal gains access to this
information, they can use it to harm you or your family.
- Teach your kids to use social networking sites safely. Sites like Facebook allow kids (and adults) to share photos and videos of themselves, have conversations with friends and strangers, and more. If your kids share something with their friends, it's still possible for it to get into the wrong hands. Generally, they should only post something online if they're comfortable with everyone in the world seeing it.
- Encourage your kids to come to you if they encounter a
problem. If your child
gets into trouble online, you'll want them to come to you instead of
hiding it. Keep in mind that your kids could accidentally encounter a bad
site, even if they're doing everything right.
- Talk to your kids about internet use. Talk to your
kids regularly about how they use the internet. If they're in the habit of
talking to you about the internet, they'll be more willing to come to you
if there is a problem.
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