Streetproof your kids for the web
Instill safe surfing habits in your children
By Heather Camlot
Do you know what your child is doing online?
Interactivity is one of the Internet’s greatest assets, but it can also spell danger. Because chat rooms are anonymous, the 12-year-old girl from Texas your child believes she’s conversing with may, in reality, be a predator around the corner — asking your child to meet face to face.
Safety first
Other safety issues that arise when children surf on the Internet include
- solicitations for personal information
- offensive or inappropriate e-mail or junk mail
- obscene or hateful material
- immersive advertising, i.e., marketing sites disguised as games for children all the while tracking computer use and gathering information
“We’re not saying technology is bad,” says Cathy Wing, an Internet and media education specialist with the Media Awareness Network (MNet). “It’s a wonderful tool for kids in a lot of ways but it has to be done with adult supervision.”
MNet is a Canadian not-for-profit education organization that promotes and supports media education.
Cindy Opler, an elementary school teacher and mother of three, doesn’t watch over her child’s Internet activities, though she knows she’s on e-mail and Windows Live Messenger, plays web-based games and does research online. While she and her husband have talked to their daughter about the dangers of the Net, both parents believe their daughter is extremely responsible and trust that she would tell them if she came across any inappropriate content.
And she has. “Her name was getting added to lists of people she doesn’t know, people sending her messages that weren’t appropriate,” explains Opler.
Ways to stay safe
Some web browser services, such as MSN Premium, contain parental controls to help monitor your child’s Internet surfing. Age-based web filters are designed to help prevent children from looking at unsuitable web sites, while a weekly history report tracks the time your child has spent online.
The Windows Vista Web Filter is an operating system-based parental control that uses Internet content filters. A parent can choose to filter out references to hate speech, weapons, gambling or drugs. If a site hasn’t been categorized yet, you can click here to submit the site for review by Windows Live administrators. Parents can manually add a site to a list of sites to allow or block; parents can also restrict a child’s ability to download files to the computer.
Other software such as Net Nanny and CyberPatrol can also help. “Software can prevent [kids] from accessing the worst of the worst,” says Debbie Gordon, managing director of Mediacs, which runs media literacy workshops for kids. “But as they get older, filtering out sites is a trickier business, and the software doesn’t catch what it can’t understand.”
They also can’t detect when a “fun” site is one big advertisement. Parents just really have to know what sites their kids are going to, says Wing.
So what can you do?
Wing and Gordon suggest these steps.
1. Create a family contract about Internet use. Include where your children can go online, how to protect their personal information and what to do when they come across inappropriate content. “You should create the agreement in partnership with your kids so you’re not imposing rules,” says Wing. In her opinion, Wing says children who have a contract usually follow the agreement and are aware of what they should be doing on the web.
2. “Have realistic consequences if they don’t follow the agreement,” says Wing. For example, no Internet for one week.
3. Keep the computer in a well-used area of the house (not a bedroom) to keep an eye on surfing at all times.
4. Make sure chat rooms are monitored. Make sure an adult associated with the site oversees conversations. You can find this information by reading a web site‘s privacy policy. Different sites have different ways of looking after their chat rooms: either a person or software monitors the chat. But parents should still oversee a child’s time in a chat room. “Even though a children’s site is monitored, there is nothing to stop an adult from joining,” says Wing.
5. School friends may be telling your children about cool new sites, but they may not be appropriate. Load sites for younger kids and sit with them to get a sense of their content. For older children, know where they are on the web at all times, and set time limits for surfing.
6. “Net proof” your kids by explaining how some sites are strictly advertising, even if they do have games, says Gordon. The bottom line — be aware of what information your child is giving out on the Internet, especially when filling out surveys and questionnaires.
“Don’t ever assume your kids are as savvy about the Net as you want them to be. They may be tech-savvy and be able to do all sorts of downloading, but that’s no substitute for life experience,” says Gordon.
