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Defend Your Children against Online Predators (2)

Loredana BOTEZATU

March 09, 2010

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Defend Your Children against Online Predators (2)

Children and teens need, at all times, adults’
support. Parents have to become ever more computer savvy as for to better
understand the threats their offspring face while surfing the Internet. Here
are some ideas for parents that want to be a part of their children’s on- and
off-line life.

Tips for Parents:

  • Try to learn as much as possible about the
    needs that your children have when it comes to Internet and computer and
    together unveil the mysteries of cyber world; always communicate with your
    offspring about the threats the Internet poses to him/her as well as to the
    family as a whole;
  • Do not allow your child to have a computer
    in his/her room; place it in a place where you could keep an eye on the
    monitor when the circumstances ask for it (for instance, in the
    living-room);
  • You should try and “google” you child’s name
    (together with your child) and see what comes out; you might find interesting
    things such as blogs they may have, communities they are active in,
    information about him/her and about the entire family;
  • Make sure you know the passwords your
    children use for their accounts; encourage them to restrict the amount of
    exposed information to a certain number of people that you know and trust;
    make sure you know your child’s online friends as you know those from the
    real life;
  • Discuss with other parents and share your
    experiences; you could also make sure you never miss a training or an
    informative conference organized by schools or within your community; 
  • Establish rules together with your children
    regarding the computer/web use, underlining the safety reasons you are
    concerned about – you might want to make your child an ally in our fight
    for safety;
  • When you decide to use parental control
    tools, which will unburden you a lot from some of the responsibilities you
    have, do not keep this a secret from the child; involve him/her and let
    him know how these services can protect you all;
  • Advise your children not to respond to
    e-mails that contain spam, obscene and aggressive messages and furthermore
    to avoid sending themselves this kind of e-mails; teach them about the
    responsibility they have toward the others active in the online community;
  • As parents and teachers, you should be aware of the computer
    lingo, i.e.  P911 – my parents are
    coming; PA – parent alert; PAL – parents are listening; PANB – parents are
    nearby; TAW –  teachers are watching;

 

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Author


Loredana BOTEZATU

A blend of product manager and journalist with a pinch of e-threat analysis, Loredana writes mostly about malware and spam. She believes that most errors happen between the keyboard and the chair.

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