Online safety tips for kids ages 2 to 4
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A 2003 study on children's Internet use, showed that pre-schoolers are now the fastest-growing segment of Internet users. While children at this age have a limited attention span for online activities, Internet images and sounds can stimulate their imagination and add to their experiences.
What pre-schoolers can do online
Parents and older siblings can go online with pre-schoolers to visit kid-friendly Web sites and play online games. At this age, adults have an important role to play in teaching safe Internet use and closely supervising their children's reactions to online material.
Safety tips
Here are some safety tips to consider when you go online with your 2-4 year old:
| • | Always go online with your kids at this age. |
| • | Add acceptable sites to your Favorites list to create a personalized online environment for your kids. |
| • | Use kid-friendly search engines (such as MSN Kids Search) or search engines with parental controls. |
| • | Investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as MSN Premium's Parental Controls) as a complement—not a replacement—for parental supervision. |
| • | Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows with software that blocks pop-ups. There's a pop-up blocker built in to the most updated version of Windows XP and the MSN Toolbar. |
| • | Start to teach your children about privacy. If a site encourages kids to submit their names to personalize the Web content, help your child create an online nickname that reveals no personal information. |
| • | All family members should act as role models for young children as they start to use the Internet. |
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