The Internet is a very powerful tool. In the past it has been essentially a huge archive of all the worlds information but now the web has evolved and changed a lot. The web is no longer just about information and news it’s more about people and social networks. 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. As the web becomes more of a social medium in also brings with it some of the social problems of society, problems such a bullying and predatory adults who seek out week and venerable people such as children and exploit them.
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 key is a healthy balance but how can you achieve this on line?
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 first and probably most importance of these steps is to talk to your child about the dangers of the Internet and take an interest in what they do, try not to lecture your children or interrogate them just be interested in them and their online friends. Try to work with your child to come up with a set of rules for Internet use that you can both agree on and then type these out and post them up next to the computer. Think about the location of your computer, a good location is where other people can see the screen and where there are usually other people in the room.
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 download free adult filters from the web, these are not 100 affective and still won’t help protect your children from bullies of predators but they will help protect against adult content. The second thing you can do is download software to monitor and protect your children online. This software will record all your child’s activities including conversations which they have with people over the net using instant messenger and other online services. 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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