In 2004, a study examining Internet use by children found that 98 percent of children ages 9 to 19 used the Internet weekly. Among those Internet users, 92 percent reported accessing it at school, 75 percent reported using it at home, and 64 percent reported using it in another location. The same research study found that 36 percent of the children who use the Internet weekly reported that they had not received any instructions regarding how to use it safely. Additionally, 40 percent of the children admitted to having chatroom conversations that were sexual in nature. Children reported that they also shared personal information such as their names and addresses with people they had met online. Alarmingly, children also reported that they perceived these online friends to be close and more accepting of their true selves than those friends they knew in person.
Signs of Risky Online Behavior According to research conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the following are some signs that a child might be at risk online:
• Your child spends large amounts of time online, especially at night.
• You find pornography on your child’s computer.
• Your child receives phone calls from men you don’t know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don’t recognize.
• Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don’t know.
• Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
• Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.
• Your child is using an online account belonging to someone else.
• Communicate with your child. Have a conversation with your child about Internet safety beforehand and keep the lines of communication open.
• Determine what your child wants. Discuss with your child what sites are being looked at and whether social networking sites are being used.
• Supervise Internet friends. Parents should become acquainted with their child’s online friends, much like they would with friends walking into their homes. Additionally, parents should discuss with their child the dangers of meeting Internet friends offline. If a child is planning to meet an Internet friend in person, the meeting should take place in a public location, and a trusted adult, predetermined by the parent, should be with the child during the meeting.
• Establish unrevealing screen names. Screen names, or aliases, are frequently used when communicating online. When determining screen names, parents should actively help make sure that screen names do not use suggestive language or personal information. Make sure your child’s screen name doesn’t reveal personal information, such as name, age, hometown, or school. Pick an anonymous name.
• Monitor online activity. Parents should periodically review the history of online activities. Additionally, parents should consider setting their browser security to high to reduce the potential exposure to pornography or other inappropriate materials.
• Place computers in a central location. Parents should only allow Internet access on computers that are in a central location of the home, such as a living room. Avoid allowing Internet access in secluded areas of the home, such as a child’s bedroom.
• Parents should assist children in establishing secure passwords. Secure passwords include combinations of characters, numbers, and letters as well as upper and lowercase letters. As a part of establishing secure passwords, tell children that passwords are not to be shared with anyone except their parents. Explain the financial and personal dangers of sharing passwords.
• Restrict access to social networking sites. If it’s determined that a child will have access to social networking sites, parents should insist that the social networking sites not be public. For safety, the site should have restricted access to only a select group of people, such as family and close friends. Make sure the people in the restricted access group maintain the privacy of the site.
• Use filtering software. Install filter and blocking software such as Netnanny (http://www.netnanny.com) and Cyberpatrol (http://cyberpatrol.com). While these may not block all objectionable materials, they do help to reduce them.
• Post only information that both the child and parent would be comfortable seeing online. Help the child realize that many people can see the site, including teachers, police, the college they may try to apply to, and potential employers.
• Modelonline respects. Parents should model appropriate online behavior as well as discuss with their children that foul language or name-calling is intolerable.
• Set up a family Internet use contract. Parents and children should discuss age-appropriate Internet activities and what the family policy is for Internet use, both within
and outside of the household. By setting up a family Internet use contract, parents and children can discuss the potential hazards of online materials and establish what the expectations are for children’s conduct and behavior online. Examples of contracts can be found at http://www.netsmartz.org/, http://safekids.com, and http://www.isafe.org/.
• Maintain lines of communication. Make sure that your child knows that you will listen calmly to concerns about online activity and respond in a way that is supportive.
Just as parents set safety guidelines for swimming, crossing the street, and buckling seatbelts, parents also need to be vigilant when their children use the Internet. Parents must stay abreast of technology changes and help guard their children’s safety online.
Ensuring a safer digital world for children requires a collective effort. Parents must stay informed and engaged in their children’s online lives. Schools must integrate digital literacy into education. Governments must enforce laws that hold offenders accountable. Tech companies must implement stricter policies to protect young users. Finally, communities must foster a culture of digital responsibility and kindness.
The internet should be a space where children can learn, explore, and connect without fear. By taking proactive steps today, we can create a digital landscape that prioritizes safety, privacy, and well-being for future generations.
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