Internet Safety
Long gone are the days when you can issue a punishment to your child that entails limited time watching TV and chatting on the phone. Most parents nowadays turn to where it hurts them the most - limiting their time on the Internet. The Internet has become more than just a source of information. In fact, for most children it has become a way to socialize and stay connected. While the Internet has served us well with its plethora of updated information, it is also, unfortunately, a dangerous place for an unsuspecting child or teenager.
Although most parents do recognize the Internet as dangerous place many of them do not realize the severity. According to a 2002 FBI report - Children that visit chat rooms are at a 100% risk to encounter a pedophile at one or more point at any given time. They also report that every two out of five missing teenagers is in some way Internet related.
If that isn’t scary enough, unfortunately most children will share personal information about themselves, their families, and where they live to complete strangers within chat rooms and other forums. Pedophiles can use these small tidbits of information to create a profile of your child. Innocent information like the name of a school, basketball team name, or town they live in can be used to locate them using Internet resources.
Thankfully there are ways to help protect our children. The Safe Surfin’ Foundation is an organization that works to educate the public about Internet crimes against children and how communities can protect their children from becoming victims. According to their resources, here are some suggestions of things that every child should know and do:
- You don’t always know who you’re chatting with online so never reveal personal information in a chat room or any other public forum. Personal information can include: address, school, town, team they play on, street name, phone number, or email address.
- Always use an online name instead of your real name.
- Be careful when filling out profile forms. Just because there are fields that ask for personal information doesn’t mean that they need to be filled out.
- Never meet with someone that you met online by yourself or in a private place.
- Tell a parent if any one harasses you or if there is any inappropriate content in a chat room or forum.
