Educating youth about internet safety risks

by Melissa Summers (Subscribe to Melissa Summers's posts) Dec 22nd 2005 12:02PM

Well here's a novel idea, instead of banning parents from taking pictures of their kids at holiday concerts and telling high school students they may not keep MySpace profiles without facing expulsion: why don't we educate our children about the risks they're taking.

A school in Wyoming has started a class to educate teachers about the variety of risks and pitfalls involved on the web. From cyber-bullying to identity theft, the pitfalls of unregulated access to the internet teens have are numerous.

Some good rules for kids and the internet (teens included):

Keep the computer in a common are of the house where it can be monitored: no computers in bedrooms. (Or a clever child may start his own porn business in his bedroom. Oops!)
Understand what your child is doing on the internet. (Oooh...a teenager will love this! I'm 32 and it still annoys me to explain to my mother what a 'Blahg' is.)
Know who they're talking too with instant messaging and make sure they understand just because someone says they're 13, doesn't mean they are 13.
And most of all, never, ever show your face on the internet!!!! You may be surprised to hear I actually have some concerns about this issue as my daughter gets older. Now I don't have concerns for her safety since she's with me all the time. As she becomes more independent, riding her bike to school, going to the mall, I think the risk of her photo on the internet becomes a little more tangiable than the risk of a pervert viewing a photo of my child and fantasizing. I'll have to reevaluate though when there is a physical risk involved.

You can find a lot of great information at staysafe.org

Comments (1)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Cathy 12-22-2005 @ 2:51PM

I ask each of the Girl Scouts in my troop AND their parents to sign a list of Internet safety guidelines that they will follow and I still found a blog for one of the scouts with her full name birthdate and address. Now I have to find a way to change it without her feeling I've violated her privacy. Last year I told another parent that her daughter was in a chat room under a suggestive screen name and they just roilled their eyes and said "so what".

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