How to Teach Children Internet Safety

How do we keep our kids safe online when they tend to know more about it than we do?? Here are some topics to discuss.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Top three most important things for kids to know:
   1. Never give out personal info.
   2. Always listen to and follow inner promptings.
   3. Only chat, email, IM, etc. with people you have already met in person or have parental approval for.

2. Discuss with kids about emailing:
   1. Whatever blessing or penalty the email says will happen--it WON'T
   2. Delete previous email addresses before forwarding to protect friend's privacy.
   3. Check for authenticity on snopes.com or similar site.
   4. Use BCC when forwarding or sending items to many people to protect privacy.
   5. Be aware of viruses--be careful what you open.
   6. Rather than clicking links within emails, hover over them to discover the source. Then copy and paste if you decide to view it.
   7. Spam. If it looks fishy, it probably is! Just delete it.

3. Discuss these topics about personal information
   1. What exactly is personal information? Address, phone number, where you go to school, etc.
   2. When is it okay to give this information out?

4. Discuss about Random surfing:
   1. Don't surf with out a goal in mind. This makes it easier to steer clear of inappropriate sites.
   2. Cookies--people gather your info from sites visited

5. Discuss chat rooms & games:
   1. When do you need parental approval?
   2. Don't give out IM info to just anyone
   3. Only with people you know in approved settings
   4. Playing games with others on the internet can be fun, but the same rules apply as to chat rooms. Don't give out info, don't try to get to know other people in this situation. People you know already would be best to play against.

6. Discuss social networks.
   1. myspace is not the place for kids. It is far too easy for predators to gain info there.
   2. facebook--responsible teens can use this. Only approve people as friends that you know in real life. You must have one or both parents as one of your friends. (Parents check up on what they are doing regularly!)
   3. Talk about other social networks you want to join with parents before joining.

7. Discuss when in doubt, don't
   1. Always follow inner promptings. God gives you this protection for a reason. Use it.
   2. If you aren't sure a site will be good, don't go to it.
   3. If an offer seems too good to be true, assume it isn't a good offer.
   4. Always feel free to discuss questions and concerns with parents

Tips & Warnings

• Always assume there are more things about the internet that you as a parent don't know about and try to keep abreast of the latest topics, games, functions yourself. Your kids will find all the latest things. You need to know about them too to protect your children.
• Ask your kids to tell you about the latest greatest things they are discovering. Learning about them together sometimes is a good thing.
• Always be impressed with their vast knowledge on the subject of the internet. Praising them for this is a good thing. It will make them be more conscientious and more likely to share stuff with you!
• Don't assume that talking to your kids about internet safety a couple of times is enough. It bears frequent repetition.

Resources

• Internet Safety PDF

[40skydiver]

on 7/6/2009 Great tips and so important!