The Internet has become a fully integrated component of our daily lives. Our kids primarily use the net for education, personal entertainment, and networking with friends. The Internet is allowing them access to information with greater efficiency and autonomy than at any other time in history. Yet along with the many wonderful practical uses, there are dangerous misuses. Most parents are aware of the potential dangers online associated with predators and bullies, but we also need to pay attention to what our children are viewing online. Exposure to inappropriate material (in particular sexually explicit material) can have adverse developmental consequences. So let’s consider what more we can do to help safeguard our kids online.

1. Install internet filter and accountability software:
   While Internet Filter Software companies are quick to acknowledge that technology is no surrogate for proper parenting, we certainly want to employ every good resource available to safeguard our kids online. In the same way that responsible driving is the key to avoid collisions, seatbelts are employed as necessary protection in case of accidents. Is your child or family’s computer buckled in?
2. Educate kids on what is and what isn’t appropriate to post online:
   Kids often have a different understanding of privacy to what their parents do. For parents, privacy is about social/public boundaries and protection of personal information and images. However, for children, privacy is often defined as what we do online without mum and dad’s knowledge. In the same way we as parents want to know where our children are at all times in public, do you know where your kids hang out online, who they are with, and what information/images they are sharing?
3. Up skill yourself online:
   To help parents in becoming more savvy, a great online parent resource center has been established in different countries: Visit http://www.thinkuknow.com/parents/ to find out ‘everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask!’ This educational resource helps parents gain insight into predators who groom children, the use of Internet enabled mobile phones, issues associated with online games, as well as social networking and chat sites/rooms.

On the second Friday of every month, the InternetSafety.com Blog will be posting guest video posts from Dr. Robi Sonderegger, clinical psychologist and founding director of Family Challenge Australia, and consultant and policy adviser on the rehabilitation of trauma associated with war, sexual exploitation (human trafficking) and natural disaster worldwide.

Filed under: Internet Safety Tips