For example, a study conducted in 2000 found that 25 percent of kids 10 to 17 years of age received unwanted pornographic material.
The Web allows you to be completely anonymous. Someone who says that he is a 15-year-old boy may actually be a 50-year-old man pretending to be a teen for inappropriate reasons. As a result, agreeing to meet in person with someone you met over the Internet is extremely dangerous, as this can result in sexual assault or even murder.
How to Stay Safe on the Internet
- Never give out personal information, such as your name, home address or phone number, the name of your school, pictures, credit card numbers or the names of your parents without permission from your parents.
- Do not meet in person with someone you met online.
- Do not give out your password to anyone.
- In chat rooms, use a name that is not gender-specific so you are less likely to receive pornographic material or other forms of harassment. If you do receive pornographic material, report it to your local police department.
E-mail Safety
- Do not open links or files from people you do not know.
- Never respond to e-mails with pornographic or other inappropriate material.
- Do not respond to advertisements -- this confirms that you have a working e-mail account, and you will only receive more junk e-mail.
Chat Rooms
Chat rooms can be particularly dangerous. Even when chat rooms are specifically for teens, participants are not necessarily all teens. Someone you meet in the chat room may actually be an adult predator who has made up an identity to hide his or her age.Assessing a Web Site
- Look for an author, a way to contact the author or organization, and a title, and make sure that the information has been recently updated, particularly if it is about health issues.
- Assess the credibility of the organization or author to write on the specific topic.
- Check if the links are still working.
- Check the Web site address to see what the domain name includes: .com (commercial), .gov (government), .org (organization), .net (network), .edu (educational organization) or a two letter country code (country of origin). This can tell you whether the site's main goal is education or sales.
- See if the site seems biased or if it is trying to persuade you in a particular direction.
Warning Signs You Should Know To Keep Your Child Safe Online
Keeping up with what our children are doing online and with their cell phone activity is vital these days. Parents must always be looking for warning signs and red flags in protecting kids and keeping them safe in cyberspace. Safety experts say parents need to watch for issues like cyber bullying and harassment such as social withdrawal, falling grades, or self-hating behaviour. Due to the internet, email, social networks, cell phones-- kids can now be harassed 24 hours a day.Parents and adults should be aware these days that kids often have codes and slang they use to communicate with their peers. Parents are likely aware of LOL: laugh out loud. OMG: oh my gosh/god. However, there are some others that aren’t so common that parents should keep an eye out for, because it could mean their kids are chatting about something they don’t want Mum and Dad to learn about. For instance, PAW means, “parents are watching”; MOS is “mum over shoulder”; CD9 is “code 9” which means parents are around and 182 is “I hate you.”
Another issue facing our kids and teens these days that parents need to watch for is sexting. A 2009 poll found that one in five teens sent sexually suggestive pictures via text and may have received such images. Another poll found that 44% of school boys had seen at least one naked picture of a female classmate. Signs to look for your child is sexting? Is your child extremely protective of their cell phone? Do they send messages in private, not texting a lot while you are around but behind closed doors?
Experts say it is important for parents to understand what their kids are doing online, and although trusting them is important, their safety is equally, if not more important. Most importantly, talk to your kids about what they are doing, open lines of communication are key. Monitor what they are doing online and with their cell phone and keep track of their messages, who they are talking to and when they are doing it. While it may seem like “big brother” is watching, it’s okay. You ARE the parent and no one ever said being the parent would be easy. It’s your job to keep your kids and teens safe and secure.Facebook Kicks Out 20,000 Underage Users Every Day, If you ever wondered whether underage tweens were 'sneaking' onto Facebook, despite the 13 and older 'age restriction', wonder no more. Facebook's Chief Privacy advisor yesterday confirmed the social networking site kicks out over 20,000 underage users every day, and it surely does not catch everyone lying about their age. Do you think your child is using Facebook without your consent? Find out now with a simple, FREE search for your child's online profiles using SafetyWeb.com. Sign up for to be notified when your child opens new accounts online, and when any content posted to Facebook or over a hundred sites monitored trips a 'red flag' for risky activity such as cyberbullying, suicide, depression, self-harm, drugs, alcohol use, and more. Following the safety tips I have given should help both you and your child in being safe.
Further reading:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/topics/safety-and-privacy/internet-safety-for-kids