FOR PARENTS & GUARDIANS -
How to teach your children about the Internet

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Contributed by Amanda Bach

Whatever your age, the Internet is a great place to hang out. It’s not only fun, but it lets you keep in touch with friends and family and provides an enormous amount of information. There are lots of great educational sites as well as places to keep up with your favorite hobbies, music, sports, and much more. If you’re a parent or guardian, talk to your children about “the Net.” If you need to learn more, ask your kids. You’ll learn from each other - if not about the Internet, then about life in general, how to make good decisions, and how to look at information critically.

If you’re the parent or guardian of a teenager, you may feel teens don’t need the same restrictions and controls as younger kids. You may be right, but just because they’re older doesn’t mean they’re out of danger. Teenagers are actually more likely to get into trouble online than younger children. Teens are more likely to explore; they’re more likely to reach out to others besides their peers; and, sadly, they’re more often preyed upon as victims by child molesters and other exploiters.

PROTECTING YOUR CHILDREN

Be reasonable and set reasonable expectations. Try to understand their needs, interests, and curiosity. Remember what it was like when you were their age.

BE OPEN WITH YOUR TEENS, AND ENCOURAGE THEM TO COME TO YOU IF THEY ENCOUNTER A PROBLEM ONLINE

If your kids tell you about someone or something they encountered, work with them to help them avoid problems. Remember, how you respond will determine whether they confide in you the next time they encounter a problem. It will also shape how they learn to deal with problems on their own.

LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT THE INTERNET

Ask your teens to show you what’s cool. Have them show you great places for teens and fill you in on areas you may benefit from as well. Make “surfing the Net” a family experience. Use it to plan a vacation, pick out a movie, or check out other family activities. Make this one area where you get to be the student and your child gets to be the teacher.

CHECK OUT BLOCKING, FILTERING, AND RATINGS APPLICATIONS

As you may know, there are now services that rate web sites for content. There are also filtering programs and browsers that empower parents and guardians to block the types of sites they consider to be inappropriate. These programs work in different ways. Some block sites known to contain objectionable material. Some prevent users from entering certain types of information such as their name and address. Other programs keep your children away from chatrooms or restrict their ability to send or read E-mail. Generally these programs can be configured by a parent or guardian to only block the types of sites considered to be objectionable.

Whether or not it is appropriate to use one of these programs is a personal decision. You should also be careful to choose a program with criteria that reflects your family’s values. Be sure to configure it so it doesn’t block sites you want your teen to be able to visit.

It is important to realize filtering programs cannot protect your child from all online dangers. To begin with, no program can possibly block out every inappropriate site. What’s more, it’s possible, in some cases, for the programs to block sites that are appropriate. If you use a filtering program, you should re-evaluate it periodically to make sure it’s working for your family.

Regardless of whether you use a filtering program, you should still be sure your teen follows all of the basic rules listed here. Filtering programs are not a substitute for good judgment, supervision, or critical thinking. With or without filters, all family members need to be “Net savvy” and communicate with each other.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR AND WHAT TO KNOW

Most people think of computers as the only way to get online, but it’s possible to do it from other devices including cell phones, personal digital assistants, and even video-game consoles. Some video-game systems, for example, are Internet enabled so you can compete against — and chat with — players around the world.

Most cell phones can also be used to exchange instant messages, send E-mail, and surf the web. Exchanging short messages, called “texting,” is growing in popularity in the United States. Many cell phones also have color screens and built-in digital cameras making it possible to exchange photographs.

Companies that provide Internet service can, in certain situations, exercise some control over the type of content and “customer conduct” in its own areas. But these services have no control or jurisdiction over what takes place on the Internet as a whole. And even within their own areas, these services can’t monitor everything that happens. So, even if you’re going online using one of these services, you’re not completely protected from the larger dangers.

Sources:
the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com
1-800-843-5678

Contributor - Amanda Bach is co-founder and co-creator of SingleMom.com. The co-creator currently resides in California and Washington, DC. She was raised by a single mom and so she learned it first hand how difficult it was to watch her mom struggled everyday life. And that is the main reason she co-founded SingleMom.com to create this wonderful Website/organization. Her energy, natural creative ability and superior business intuition make her contributions to this website immeasurable. As you know, lots of tough decisions are made as a parent, let alone as a single parent. Her hobbies include volunteer, Internet, reading, ballet, traveling, snowboarding, and especially wine & food.