Safety Advice for Online Activity

Parents need to take part in a balancing act when it comes to online activity; the act is shielding the children from cyber-bullying and predators while not taking away all their freedom. Statistics show that one in 25 children will receive an “aggressive” online sexual solicitation from someone trying to set up a face-to-face meeting. In addition on the Internet, there is estimated to be more than 5 million predators, with 77% of their online prey ages 14 and older, and 22% targeting tweens between 10 and 13.   

Cyber-bullying has become more widespread as social networking sites become the choice for teenagers to exhaust their frustrations, spread rumors, and carry out their verbal attacks in front of hundreds of their "friends" and "followers." And now in suburbs, where students have more technology at their fingertips, cyber-bullying is becoming more common, experts say. So, how can parents let tweens and teens have some freedom on the Internet today?  Here are some suggested guidelines to follow: 

1. Make sure appropriate controls and settings are turned on at the key sites your tweens or teens visit
2. Don’t give too much of your child’s personal information on social networking sites.  A social networking account allows for some of a child’s personal information to be viewable in a search engine. Parents need to consistently monitor this information
3. Doing a Google search every so often of your child is a good idea to make sure you know what your child’s online presence reflects
4. Do not allow your child to have a social networking account if under the age of 13.  The majority of the social networking sites prohibit children under the age of 13 to have an account
5. If you child is over 13 years old and has a social networking account make sure they are only “friends” with people they actually know in real-life
6. Do not permit your teens to “friend” adults on social networking sites. When this happens, even if it’s a trusted friend or relative, teens are exposed to the adult content and images posted on that adult’s site.