eouaib.com

Web safety is not negotiable. While on the Internet, there must be a complete agreement between parents, teens and even younger children saying they will look out for one another when it comes to being and staying safe. The problems most commonly associated with breaches of online safety are the suggested meet ups between posters who only know one another from online chat rooms.

In these venues it is easy for the more skilled predators to sweet-talk naive teens with promises of hanging out, being friends and even romance. a lot of these meet ups result in missing teens. Teens was not aware of their parent’s expectations when it came to online safety one of these is nary. What failed?

Typically the concept is that this particular internet user is different, or the young adult is way too smart to get taken advantage of and put in harmful situations. In their online safety talks, parents should make it a point to stress the simple techniques used by online predators and those who would seek to worm confidential information out of the kids. At the end of the day, parents are still the most powerful online safety tools available.

Be a Web Safe Kid

While on the Internet, there must be a complete agreement between parents, teens and even younger children saying they will look out for one another when it comes to being and staying safe.

The problems most commonly associated with breaches of online safety are the suggested meet ups between posters who only know one another from online chat rooms.

In these venues it is easy for the more skilled predators to sweet-talk naive teens with promises of hanging out, being friends and even romance.

Many of these meet ups result in missing teens. Teens was not aware of their parent’s expectations when it came to online safety one of these is nary.

What happened?

Most commonly it is the idea this one poster is different, or the teen is far too savvy to get caught up in a dangerous situation.

In their online safety talks, parents should make it a point to stress the simple techniques used by online predators and those who would seek to worm confidential information out of the kids.

Online safety is not negotiable. At the end of the day, parents are still the most powerful online safety tools available.

Be a Web Safe Kid

Dating is always awkward for teenagers, but it is especially awkward for those youngsters who seek others to date over the Internet. Safety is, and should be, every teen’s number-one concern.

The primary reason for this is that one doesn’t really know with whom one is interacting. Despite words and photos, these indicators do not guarantee the identity of the other person. Caution is always prudent. In addition to that, teens meeting one another for the first time should go in groups, or with a friend so they are not alone. A parent’s presence is acceptable, too, but only if the teen wishes it. The point is for teens who are meeting to not put themselves in a helpless position.

If the first “date,” or initial meeting works out, then all subsequent dates can be one-on-one. The important thing is that both teens involved feel comfortable with one another.

Another reason for safety is an old one, but it can never be stressed too often: Watch out for predators! Most predators seek out ‘tweens’ (10-12) or younger teens (13-14), but slightly older teens (15-16) should still be wary. These adults—usually men, but sometimes women—are persistent and will do anything to get close to the youngsters. For this reason, one should never divulge personal or contact information with someone that one doesn’t know well.

A third safety tip: Let parents know, not that emails should necessarily be shared. Teens have a right to their privacy, especially when it comes to dating, but if parents know that their teen is engaged in online dating, perhaps they can offer support and additional suggestions for their teen to play it safe at all times. One shouldn’t be afraid to confide in a parent, especially where one’s safety is concerned.

In the end, teens should always be smart and careful. It could literally mean the difference between life and death.

Be a Web Safe Kid

There are millions of parents that are worried about their children’s safety on the internet. Internet programmers and website owners are also concerned about your children being as safe and as healthy as possible. Keeping this in mind, they’re constantly attempting to make websites safer and more secure for children, and trying to protect them from possible Internet threats. In order to safeguard one’s kids, parents need to take an active role in internet monitoring.

Keep any computers in the house in easily accessible areas, where you can see what websites your child is visiting, while you are standing in the room. Internet monitoring lessens the chances of children visiting inappropriate sites. With less privacy children and teens are safer on the internet, even though they do not approve of this.

You can choose sites you feel are the most appropriate for your child to visit with programs. If they attempt to enter a site they are not allowed access to, then they will be prompted to enter a password. Without the correct password, they will be unable to enter the site. This leaves you in complete control over their Web browsing.

Remember to change your password frequently and make sure it is not something your child will be able to easily guess. Giving your children access only to sites which do not have a chat function can be most effective when trying to protect them from potential online predators.

Teach your child how to stay safe when they are online; it is the best way to protect them against the bad guys.

Be a Web Safe Kid

There must be a complete agreement between parents, teens and even younger children saying they will look out for one another when it comes to being and staying safe while on the Internet. Most commonly associated with breaches of online safety are the suggested meet ups between posters who only know one another from online chat rooms.

In these venues it is easy for the more skilled predators to sweet-talk naive teens with promises of hanging out, being friends and even romance. Sadly, a lot of these meet ups result in missing teens. Teens was not aware of their parent’s expectations when it came to online safety one of these is nary. What failed?

Most commonly it is the idea this one poster is different, or the teen is far too savvy to get caught up in a dangerous situation. In their online safety talks, parents should make it a point to stress the simple techniques used by online predators and those who would seek to worm confidential information out of the kids. Parents are still the most powerful online safety tools available. Internet safety is not negotiable.

Be a Web Safe Kid

It is not easy to teach kids and teens about offer scams (free ringtones, etc.) since they are such a mainstay in the online culture. Clever marketers have long realized teens especially love the idea of getting something for nothing. What is more popular than a free ringtone, CD, DVD or t-shirt?

When you begin to teach kids and teens about offer scams (free ringtones, etc.) do not forget to underline the various bits and pieces of information that are required to receive these goodies. First and foremost, there is the divulging of a full name and mailing address. Secondly, quite often there is a demand of personally identifiable information with respect to the name of a school and other facts.

Unscrupulous marketers then solicit each kid to name his or her friends in an effort to get more such facts. While for a business this kind of marketing makes a lot of sense, when you teach kids and teens about offer scams, you may want to make sure they understand that there are no free ringtones interesting enough to let others see too much personal information about them, or to give up their friends’ names and email addresses.

Be a Web Safe Kid

by Larry Magid

Internet filters have been around since the early days of the Web and they can play an important role in preventing young children from accessing inappropriate content. But they’re not a replacement for parental involvements — and they’re not for everyone.

Before installing and configuring a filter, parents need to decide if their child needs to have software controlling how they can use the Internet and, if so, how the filter should be configured.

I don’t recommend routine use of filters for teens, especially high-schoolers. For one thing, there are lots of ways for them to get around filters, including accessing the Web from their cell phones, game consoles or other people’s PCs. And since teens are on a fast path to becoming young adults, it’s better to help them develop the filter that runs between their ears. You can’t protect them forever, so help them learn self-control. Of course, there are always exceptions, and some teens do need extra supervision.

Filters can be a convenient way to keep young children from stumbling onto material that might gross them out or disturb them. Young children generally seek out a limited number of sites, but it’s certainly possible for them to stumble onto inappropriate ones.

Seemingly innocent search terms can sometimes bring up inappropriate sites. But rather than install filters on your computer, you might consider configuring the search engine your child uses.

Google, for example, offers a “search settings” option in the upper-right corner of its main page. Click on that and select either “strict filtering” or “moderate filtering” (the default). Strict filtering, which I recommend for young children, filters both explicit text and images. Just below the setting is an option to lock safe search so kids can’t easily turn it off for that browser. Be aware, however, that the lock is browser-specific.

Microsoft’s Bing.com also has a preferences section in the upper-right corner with similar controls. Yahoo allows you to configure its filters if you’re signed in with a Yahoo account.

My safety Web site, SafeKids.com, has a search page that’s locked into Google’s strict safe search. But no safe search option is foolproof. You still need to keep an eye on young kids when they’re online.

Microsoft Windows 7 doesn’t comes with a Web filtering feature, but it has controls that let parents limit when and how long their kids use the computer and to specify which programs kids can run. To use this, you need to create a Windows account for your child, and Microsoft recommends you password-protect your own account so only you can configure your child’s account.

The “time limits” option puts up a grid that lets you drag your mouse over certain hours of specific days that you wish to block. You can also turn on “allow and block specific programs,” which blocks all programs until you approve them. Another option allows you to block or allow games.

Although it’s not built into Windows 7, Microsoft has a free Web filter that works with Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft’s Family Safety program doesn’t give you a lot of granular control over the types of sites your kids can use but it does let you choose between “strict” (which blocks all but child-friendly sites and sites you’ve allowed), “basic” (which blocks adult content) and “custom” (which lets you turn on or off a few categories, including social networking and Web mail.)

Symantec offers a more robust free program called OnlineFamily.Norton, which works with both Macs and PCs. This software gives you a great deal more control over the types of sites you kids can visit and allows you to create a separate profile for each child with recommended settings based on age.

If you already have a security suite, check to see if it includes filtering. TrendMicro Internet Security Pro, for example, includes a highly configurable Web filter. Also check with your Internet service provider to see if it offers a free Web filter.

Filters and other tools are not a substitute for parenting. Regardless of your child’s age and whether or not you use a filter, you should still check in with your kids regularly about how they use the Internet, their cell phones, game consoles and other technology.

When it comes to such issues as time online or obsessive use of the Internet or texting, remember that how you act is often more powerful than what you say. Kids learn by watching and if they see you constantly on the phone or online, they might wind up emulating your behavior.

Resources:
Parental Control & Online Child Protection: An excellent and very thorough review of parental control tools by Adam Thierer, president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation

ConnectSafely.org:  News, tips and commentary on all aspects of Internet safety, especially as it applies to the interactive “social” web.  (Disclosure, the author of this article is co-director of ConnectSafely)

GetNetWise.org: Excellent resources on Internet safety

This article is adapted from one that originally appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

SafeTeens.com

Most commonly associated with breaches of online safety are the suggested meet ups between posters who only know one another from online chat rooms. Internet safety is not negotiable. There must be a complete agreement between parents, teens and even younger children saying they will look out for one another when it comes to being and staying safe while on the Internet.

In these venues it is easy for the more skilled predators to sweet-talk naive teens with promises of hanging out, being friends and even romance. a lot of these meet ups result in missing teens. Even worse, nary a one of these teens was not aware of their parent’s expectations when it came to online safety. Something did not work?

Typically the concept is that this particular internet user is different, or the young adult is way too smart to get taken advantage of and put in harmful situations. In their online safety talks, parents should make it a point to stress the simple techniques used by online predators and those who would seek to worm confidential information out of the kids. Parents are still the most powerful online safety tools available.

Be a Web Safe Kid

Does your child or teen long to chat with their friends online? If they are like millions of others their age, chatting online is one of their favorite things to waste time doing. However, there is great risk associated with allowing your children to chat online. By using these safety tips, you can keep your children safe.

1. Chat Publicly: A great rule to abide to as a family is to only allow kids to chat in “family areas” of the home. For example, chatting in a family room or near an adult is a great way to ensure the child is behaving online. If you allow them to chat in their room (alone) they are more likely to disobey any chatting rules you’ve set.

2. Limit Access: To ensure your child isn’t meeting strangers, it’s a great idea to limit their access online. Only allow them to go to chat sites designed for teens or kids. These sites often go to great measures to ensure all language is appropriate and all members are underage.

3. Set Guidelines: Be sure to talk with your children about the importance of keeping all personal information private. Be specific and tell them not to tell anyone ANYTHING about themselves, where they live, their school, their sport teams or anything else.

4. Time Limits: Always set time limits on how often or how long a child can chat online. It’s great if you randomly mix up the times so your child can’t plan to “meet” someone they only know online at specific times. Of course, meeting a real life friend online for a chat is usually fine.

Be a Web Safe Kid

While it doesn’t break any new ground, MTV’s half-hour special, “Sexting In America: When Privates Go Public,” is a good reminder for teens that taking and sending nude pictures is never a good idea.

The show will air at 9 p.m. PST and EST on Sunday–Valentine’s Day.

The program, which is aimed at teens, explores the consequences–to one’s emotions, reputation, and legal standing–in posing for, taking, distributing, or forwarding nude pictures by cell phone or computer.

The show features 19-year-old Ally, who was 16 when she sent a nude picture to an ex-boyfriend who said he’d get back together with her if she did so. The boy, in Ally’s words, “ended up sending it to everybody in his contact list” and soon Ally’s picture was all over school. Ally said she sent the photo because “having him ask me for the picture made me feel wanted again.”

Instead she felt betrayed, especially after the reaction from classmates. “The harassment just started immediately,” she told MTV. “Kids in my school were really brutal and terrible to me in the hallway and they would call me whore, slut, ‘ho’.”

Ally, now in college, has a new boyfriend “who doesn’t like the fact that there is a nude picture of me still out there, but he’s completely understanding about it.” She told MTV that she still bears scars from this incident. “The picture is always there in the back of my mind,” she said.

Phillip Albert, now 20, has faced other consequences. When he was 17, his 16-year-old girlfriend sent him naked pictures. A month after he turned 18, he and his girlfriend got into a fight and after getting a nasty phone message from her in the middle of the night, he opened up the message with her photo and pressed the “little select all button” followed by the send button.

As a result, the girl’s picture was sent to over 70 people including “friends, teachers, parents, and grandparents.” Phillip was arrested for distribution of child pornography, put on five years probation, and required to register on the public sex offender list. He was kicked out of college, can’t find a job, and can’t live with his father because his dad lives too close to a high school. As a registered sex offender, Phillip isn’t allowed to live near a school, playground, or a church. Unless his lawyer is successful in getting to court to take him off the list, he could remain on the registered sex offender list until he’s in his 40s.

The MTV program draws on a survey conducted by the TV network and the Associated Press last year that found “29 percent (of young people 14 to 24) report receiving messages ‘with sexual words or images’ by text or on the Internet.” Confirming Ally’s story, the study found that “61 percent of those who have sent a naked photo or video of themselves have been pressured by someone else to do so at least once.”

In this study, 1 in 10 youth said they shared shared a naked image of themselves, but a subsequent study conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that “4 percent of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images or videos of themselves to someone else via text messaging.” Pew reported that “15 percent say they have received such images of someone they know via text message.”

The Pew data, which covers only minors–not young adults–indicates that the practice may not be as widespread as MTV and other studies have suggested. But even 4 percent represents a significant number of teens who have sent nude images of themselves.

If you have a teen in your life, it’s probably worth 30 minutes of your and your teen’s time to watch this show together on Sunday night. If your teen has ever been on the fence about taking, sending, or forwarding a sexting message, the show could provide some incentive to make them think twice.

“Sexting in America” is associated with A Thin Line, an MTV-sponsored site with information on sexting, cyberbullying, and other teen issues.

ConnectSafely.org, the Internet safety nonprofit I work with, also offers advice for avoiding sexting.

Here is the “Sexting in America” trailer:

SafeTeens.com