Your Child and the Internet

Sadly there are many risks to children online.  However, these can be reduced through a combination of technology and good parenting.  Without proper care, the risks include:

• Inadvertent exposure to violent or sexually explicit images.
• Solicitation by sexual predators in chat rooms and by email.
• Online bullying or harassment.
• Piracy of software, music or video.
• Disclosure of personal information.
• Spyware and viruses.
• Excessive commercialism: advertising and product-related websites.
• Illegal downloads, such as copyright-protected music files.

You need to agree ground rules for your children’s use of the internet.

The objective is not only to establish boundaries but also to help children understand the reasons why these rules exist so that they can take responsibility for their own actions and develop their own judgement.

It is suggested that you:

• Set limits on when they can use the computer and for how long.
• Agree what types of sites are permissible and which are not.
• Encourage them to come to you if anything online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened.
• Make it very clear that they must not give out personal information without your permission. In particular, addresses, phone numbers, school details, passwords or pictures.  Also take care to limit children's access to credit card and bank information.
• Warn them to be careful about giving away their email address in chat rooms or when registering for sites.
• Forbid them to meet anyone in person that they encounter online without your consent and without a responsible adult present.
• Agree what types of sites are permissible and which are not; for example you may make a policy of not allowing them to use un-moderated chat rooms or to use file sharing programs.  
• Restrict their ability to download software, music or other files without your permission.
• Agree whether (or not) they are allowed to spend money online. Although you might not give them your credit card, if you have already stored your details at an online store it may be easy for children to spend you money if you don't take steps to limit their access or agree ground rules.
• Explain what viruses and spyware are, what you are doing to prevent them and ask them to come to you if they get an alert while online.
• Research age-appropriate internet sites that you can suggest to your children.

Monitoring children’s behaviour online

• For younger children, always sit with them while they are online.
• Ask your children to share all their online user names and passwords with you.
• Set Internet Explorer to limit access to inappropriate content. To do this: go to the Tools menu and click Internet Options. Select the Content tab and then click Enable under Content Advisor.
• Encourage your children to share their internet experience with you and make it a shared family experience.
• Put the computer in an open area in the home rather than in their bedrooms.
• Consider installing internet monitoring software to track what they do online.
• Consider installing internet filtering software that may block access to some unacceptable sites or only allow access to sites you have approved
• Ensure that your children use only monitored chat rooms on reputable kids’ sites.
• Set up a limited user account on the family computer that restricts what they can do without your permission
• Don’t rely on a single technical solution. Supervision and education are also part of good parenting.
• Use a pop-up filter to prevent unwelcome adverts

 

For more information visit the Kidsmart Website (external link) or the Think U Know Website (external link)