How to Teach Internet Safety to Kids

Teaching your child about Internet safety is an important part of keeping him or her safe while they are online. While you may already have taken measures to block certain abilities or restrict your child's time spend online, helping your child understand why you do these things and what they can do to further their safety is also essential to Internet safety. Read on to learn more on how you can teach Internet safety to kids:

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

1. Show Your Child How to Use the Internet
   
   When your child is first introduced to the Internet, they can be overwhelmed by the power it gives them. This can cause your child to make dangerous mistakes, and learn from them only after the damage from those mistakes has become readily apparent. The first part of teaching Internet safety to your child should include showing them how to use the Internet, and explaining why he or she should or shouldn't visit certain websites, talk to strangers or use chat rooms, and so on.
   
   To make it easier for younger children to navigate the Internet safely, find their favorite websites and create a list of bookmarks for your child under your “Favorites.” This will allow your child to safely surf online by allowing them to choose from a “pre-approved” list of websites, and reduce the risk of your child stumbling onto an inappropriate website.

2. Teach Your Child That Predators Pose as Other Kids
   
   At this point, your child has likely already learned all about strangers and how to act when they come across one. This knowledge can be applied to the Internet, as well. Teach your child about online strangers and predators, making sure to emphasis that just because someone says that are another kid, doesn't mean they are. Sometimes, adults pretend to be other kids so they can gain a child's trust, and then get information out of them that they normally wouldn't share with strangers. Teaching your child to treat everyone as a stranger – unless they already know them well offline, like a school friend – will help them keep their personally identifying information concealed.
   
   Be careful when explaining this, especially to younger children; you could accidentally instill a fear of the Internet in your child. Emphasis to your child that the risk for being found can be decreased to almost nothing by practicing Internet safety every single time they sign online.

3. Explain What Information Should Never Be Revealed
   
   Everyone who has ever used the Internet has likely revealed personal information that they would normally never share with strangers – and many of us have done it without even realizing it. Children are even more likely than adults to reveal information that should never be shared online, especially since they don't understand how certain pieces of seemingly useless information can actually help a stranger find that child offline. Obviously, your child should be taught not to discuss their basic personal information – first and last name, date of birth, address, phone number, and so on – but you also need to explain the importance of keeping other, seemingly innocuous information concealed, as well. Things like the name of your child's school, their teachers' names, the sports teams they play for, where they practice, and any extra-curricular activities they participate in can give away where a predator can find them instantly. Stress the importance of keeping all information about your child confidential, and to never discuss any names or locations of anything they do with anyone online that they don't already know in real life.

4. Make Your Child's Social Networking Profiles Private
   
   Believe it or not, some online predators are using websites like MySpace and Facebook to track down and befriend children, gaining access to the most sensitive information, and using it to find intended targets. Even if your child doesn't reveal any of their personal information on their profiles themselves, comments from friends can give online predators all the information they need. For this reason, you should require your child to keep any social networking profile that they maintain completely private, and request that they use your e-mail address as their log-in name. That way, any friend requests or messages can be seen and tracked by you, and you will have the final approval on whether or not an individual can be friended by your child – which will give that new “friend” access to your child's otherwise private profile.

5. Tell Your Child to Report Any Suspicious Online Activity to You
   
   If your child ever feels uncomfortable while talking to others online, or comes across a website that makes them feel uneasy, tell them to report what they find immediately to you or another adult. This will allow you to review the situation, and take any appropriate action necessary. If an individual makes suggesting or offensive comments to your child while they are chatting with him or her, for example, you can save a record of the conversation and report it to authorities, if it's deemed necessary. This will also encourage your child to turn to you for guidance whenever they run into trouble online, while simultaneously keeping you informed of any problems that arise so you can better protect your child while they are online.