Internet Safety Tips to Keep Your Kids Safe

How to teach your kids about the increasing need for Internet safety, including rules and tools for safely using social media and other websites.

It has been said that the Internet changes everything: how we shop, how we are entertained, how we date, how we manage our finances, our time and our households. The Internet opens whole new worlds for children as well as for adults. They can use it to learn, to play and to communicate. But along with that almost infinite resource come considerable risks.
 
A great deal of focus has been put recently on the prevalence and dangers of cyber bullying. "With studies showing that as many as half of adolescents and teens have been bullied in some form online, cyber bullying is indeed a problem that warrants attention," says Dr. Stuart Leeds, clinical psychologist with Morris Psychological Group. "But it isn't the only threat posed by our youngsters' online lives. Among the dangers are exposure to inappropriate material, especially pornography; vulnerability to online predators; revealing personal information, including via sexting; and addiction to video games. Protecting our children from these threats is a daunting and ever-changing challenge for parents."
 
Dr. Leeds recommends a combination of "rules and tools" to keep youngsters safe online: straightforward, age-appropriate rules that children agree to as a condition of their usage of electronic devices; and tools that enable parents to control and monitor their activity. "The first and most important rule is for parents themselves," says Dr. Leeds. "They must get involved and stay involved with their children's online activity, going online with their young children, teaching them appropriate behavior and, most important, keeping the lines of communication open as the children get older and more technologically sophisticated. Rules for children must be part of the family contract."
 
Rules for Online Safety

• Never post identifying information (phone numbers, address, school, age), revealing photos or videos, or sexual messages; never reveal passwords to anyone.
  
  
• Never send pictures or identifying information to strangers.
  
  
• Never open e-mail from an unknown address; never download content from an unknown source.
  
  
• Never agree to meet in person someone met online.
  
  
• Never respond to messages that are in any way threatening, frightening or inappropriate.
  
  
• Never post, send or forward messages that are rude, unkind or damaging to someone else.

• Immediately tell an adult if any online content or communication makes you uncomfortable.

"Discuss and adapt these rules as needed to strike the appropriate balance between privacy and protection," says Dr. Leeds. "With younger children, exercise more control and supervision of their activities, the materials they upload and receive and who they interact with. As you become more comfortable with their maturity and their level of understanding of what constitutes risky behavior, modify your supervision accordingly."

Tools for Online Safety