We blog a lot about the dangers out there, and there are so many that take so many different forms it can at times seem overwhelming. Because of this we decided to isolate six problem areas and give parents one really useful strategy for dealing with them. These strategies are just a starting point, and please visit our tips section for more.

• Sexting – The increasingly common practice of sending sexually suggestive text messages, photos or videos through cell phones is a big worry. It can invite public humiliation, cyberbullying or even sexual assault. Teenagers are even being charged with child pornography for sending or posting racy photos. One way to limit children’s sexting opportunities is to retrieve their cellphones at night and charge them in the parents’ room. Phones today are simply small computers, and they should be regulated in the same way as those larger machines.

• Social Networking – Rule #1 is that children should never post anything they wouldn’t be comfortable showing to their parents, teacher, or youth worker. One way to discourage inappropriate entries is to join the social networks that your kids are on and ‘friend’ your own children so that you can monitor what they’re posting.

• Chatting – Chat rooms are not only nesting places for predators, but they often indirectly encourage rude and even abusive interactions between users due to the anonymity and lack of consequences. If your child is using chat rooms, find out which ones and check them out for yourself. If you are uncomfortable with specific chat sites, you might consider using filtering software to block access to those sites or log all chats for later review.

• Gaming – Increasingly popular MMOGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Games) like Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft are massively addictive, with reports of non-stop sessions as long as 48 or 72 hours. To prevent the unhealthy practice of spending more time in a virtual world than a real one, parents should either refuse to buy these games or impose time limits. (The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours of screen time per day per child 12 and under.) If the child breaks the rules, simply uninstall the game from the computer or confiscate the disc.

• Searching – On most popular search engines including Google, the safe-search settings aren’t completely effective and are easy to turn off. For that reason, younger children should not have a computer in their room, and their computer use should be supervised. Filtering software can also protect both younger and older children from exposure to websites with adult, violent or other inappropriate content.

• File-Sharing – Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent, uTorrent, Bearshare and Limewire allow totally unregulated access to files that other network members have shared, including illegal pirated material and child pornography, not to mention opening computers to security risks. Banning these programs in your home is a good idea. Check your family computer periodically to be sure that no one has downloaded any of them, and remove them if they have.

Filed under: Internet Safety Tips