 Children this age should have almost no limitations on content, Web sites, or activities. Teens are savvier about their Internet experience; however, they still need parents to define appropriate safety guidelines. Parents should be available to help their teens understand inappropriate messages and avoid unsafe situations. Parents may need to remind teens what personal information should not be given over the Internet. What teens do onlineBoys in this age group are more likely to look for humor, gaming, or other media sites. Girls are be more likely to build and participate in social networks. Safety tipsHere are some safety tips to consider as you guide your teens online: 1. | Continue to keep family communication as open and positive about computers as you can. Keep talking about online lives, friends, and activities, just as you would about other friends and activities. Encourage your teens to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. If you're a teen and something or someone online doesn't seem quite right, then speak up. | 2. | Create a list of Internet house rules as a family. Include the kinds of sites that are off limits, Internet hours, what information should not be shared online, and guidelines for communicating with others online, including in chat rooms. | 3. | Keep Internet-connected computers in an open area and not in a teen's bedrooms. | 4. | Investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as Windows Vista Parental Controls or Windows Live OneCare Family Safety ) as a complement to parental supervision. | 5. | 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. Windows Defender comes with Windows Vista. If you use Windows XP SP2, you can download Windows Defender for no charge. | 6. | Know which chat rooms or message boards your teens visit, and whom they talk to. Encourage them to use monitored chat rooms, and insist they stay in public chat room areas. | 7. | Insist that they never agree to meet an online friend. | 8. | Teach your kids not to download programs, music, or files without your permission. File-sharing and taking text, images, or artwork from the Web may infringe on copyright laws and can be illegal. | 9. | Talk to your teenagers about online adult content and pornography, and direct them to positive sites about health and sexuality. | 10. | Help protect them from spam. Tell your teens not to give out their e-mail address online, not to respond to junk mail, and to use e-mail filters. | 11. | Be aware of the Web sites that your teens frequent. Make sure your kids are not visiting sites with offensive content, or posting personal information or photos of themselves. | 12. | Teach your kids responsible, ethical, online behavior. They should not be using the Internet to spread gossip, bully, or threaten others. | 13. | Make sure your teens check with you before making financial transactions online, including ordering, buying, or selling items. | 14. | Discuss online gambling and its potential risks with your teens. Remind them that it is illegal for them to gamble online. |
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