Community Roll Call

The internet has evolved into a great tool for everyday life, learning and entertainment. But, it also has some pitfalls that anyone can fall into. As such I would like to outline some internet safety points for consideration.

• Never allow a minor child to be on the internet without direct and full time supervision. This means that the computer should be kept in a common area of the home and an adult should be able to see the screen at all times.

• Have a filter or screening software installed to try to prevent unwanted sites from popping up.

• Make sure you have all of your child’s passwords for any email, social sites or chat rooms they may belong to.

• Maintain your own identity, unknown to your child, so that you can check up on them that way as well.

• Every chat system has a way of preserving or archiving all communications, make sure that function is turned on.

• Teach your child not to give out any personal information including phone numbers, addresses, school names, school clubs, sports, driver’s license number or other identifying numbers.

• Teach your child to come to you and report anything scary or uncomfortable that they may witness on the internet.

• Teach your children that it is never okay to meet anyone face to face that they may have met on the internet.

• Encourage your children to use false names and never post or share pictures of themselves.

These are but a few items to think about, keep in mind that your best tool is your brain and parental instinct. For further information I recommend visiting the following sites:

www.ncpc.org
www.iSafe.org
www.netsmartz.org

You can also do a search for “Internet Safety” and find a wide array of other helpful sites. Good luck and safe surfing.