 Children who are 5-6 years old generally have a positive outlook and an accepting nature. They take pride in their new reading and counting skills, and they love to converse and share ideas. Not only are they eager to behave well, but they also are trusting and rarely question authority. What 5-6 year olds can do onlineKids at this age may be very capable at following commands on the computer, using the mouse, and playing computer games. They are, however, highly dependent on adults or older siblings to help them find Web sites, interpret online information, or send e-mail. Safety tipsHere are some safety tips to consider when you go online with your 5-6 year old: 1. | It's a good idea to foster open and positive communication with your children. Talk with them about computers and stay open to their questions and curiosity. | 2. | Use family safety tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member. For more information, see Windows Live OneCare Family Safety or Windows Vista Parental Controls. | 3. | Use kid-friendly search engines (such as MSN Kids Search) or search engines with parental controls. | 4. | Keep Internet-connected computers in an open area where you can easily supervise your kids' activities. | 5. | Investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as Windows Live OneCare Family Safety ) as a complement to parental supervision. | 6. | Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that's built in to Internet Explorer. You can also help block pop-up windows that appear when you're not surfing the Internet with Windows Defender. | 7. | Start teaching your children about privacy. If a site encourages kids to submit their names to personalize the Web content, help your kids create an online nickname that gives away no personal information. | 8. | Encourage your children to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. Stay calm and remind your kids they are not in trouble for bringing something to your attention. Praise their behavior and encourage them to come to you again if the same thing happens. Read more about how to deal with online predators and cyberbullies. |
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