The Internet is a very powerful tool. The Internet has grown from being a huge collection of the worlds information to so much more. The Internet is no more just about data and information its about people and society. Were as before chat rooms were reserved for people with special interests ( such as a trade) and cyber super nerds sits like Facebook and Bebo have made it cool to have friends on the web.
In many ways this trend is a good thing it allows kids to interact with their friends from all around the country in a safe and fun way. However in some cases things can be totally different. Now the web is becoming more of a social medium it is bringing onto itself some of problems of society, problems such as predatory adults and bullies.
As the web now begins to mimic society as a whole parents as they do in normal society are beginning to try and think of ways that they can protect their children online. Often parents take extreme action when worrying about their kids online such as banning them form using the Internet or restricting their access to one or two approved sites. In my opinion this is very similar to parents who keep their children locked inside all day and never let them out into the real world. It’s harmful for kids not to be allowed to interact and can harm their development. Equally at the other extreme there are those parents who let their kids do whatever the hell they like, sometimes this approach is ok but a lot of the time those kids end up in trouble. The secret is a good balance but how can you achieve this on the Internet?
In order too allow you children the freedom they need to explore and learn on the Internet there are a few simple steps you can follow. The initial and most important step is to talk to your kids about the online dangers and to take an interest in what they are doing and what they say, try not to talk down to them as this will cause them to close up. Try to talk to your kids and thrash out a list of Internet rules that you can put up near to the computer. Be clever about where the computer is kept be sure other people are near by and can see the screen.
Once you have taken these basic steps if you are still not comfortable with your child using the Internet there are a couple of other measures you can take. You can get free adult filters from the net but they are not totally effective and wont guard against bullies. The second thing you can do is download software to monitor and protect your children online. Software like this will record all your kids’ online activity including MSN conversations and activities on Facebook. There is a small cost to downloading this software but it will allow you to see everything your child does online and will be totally indictable to the child. The software can act like an invisible safety net to your other measures of protection.
In Summary try not to overreact to the potential dangers of the net there are many good things out their and the Internet can be a very useful tool to helping you child’s academic and social education but also keep in mind there are risk and you need to remain ever on your guard in order to effectively protect your children online.
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