• Do not allow your children to use the Internet when you are not at home. You may consider installing a password protected program to prevent use when you do not give permission.
• Get to know the Internet and any services your child uses. If you don’t know how to log on, get your child to show you.
• Have your child show you what he or she does online, and become familiar with all the activities that are available online. Find out if your child has a free web-based E-mail account, such as those offered by Hotmail and Yahoo!® , and learn their user names and passwords.
• Never give out identifying information — home address, school name, or telephone number — in a public message such as chat or newsgroups, and be sure you’re dealing with someone both you and your children know and trust before giving out this information via E-mail.
• Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they “meet” on the Internet without parental permission.
• Never respond to messages that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable. Encourage your children to tell you if they encounter such messages. If you or your child receives a message that is harassing, of a sexual nature, or threatening, forward a copy of the message to your ISP,(Internet Service Provider) and ask for their assistance. You can also forward the message to local law enforcement or the FBI
• Instruct your child not to click on any links that are contained in E-mail from persons they don’t know. Such links could lead to sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate web sites or could be a computer virus.
• Remember that people online may not be who they seem. Because you can’t see or even hear the person it would be easy for someone to misrepresent him- or herself. Thus someone indicating that “she” is a “12-year-old girl” could in reality be a 40-year-old man.

About this Document

This document was written by Lawrence J. Magid, a syndicated columnist and technology commentator, who is author of The Little PC Book (Peachpit Press) and host of www.safekids.com, a web site devoted to keeping children safer in “cyberspace.” He is also the author of Teen Safety on the Information Highway, a free brochure that is also published by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Or order a free copy by calling 1-800-843-5678.