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The Internet can be an extremely effective tool for teaching your children...and also a frightening means for your kid to get into trouble fast.
I'll chat more about teaching here. But in the meanwhile, let's start with:
Before You Begin - Cyber Safety
- Always be careful about strangers on the Internet. - unless you know for certain it's your friend from the 6th grade chatting with you, you're probably talking with a stranger. And a 54 year old child predator can easily come across as an 11 year old girl wanting to make friends. You never ever ever know who is really behind the screen.
- Never download ANYTHING without parental permission. - Lots of those cool free programs contain spyware and other nasty ickies that will ruin your computer.
- Never give out your real name, phone number, address, anything that can identify you online. - such things can enable unwanted visitors to track you down.
- Never share information about your family or friends online. - covert advertisers/other people might try to win you over to get more information about the people you love.
- Don't make threats. - you're always traceable online...and if you're foolish enough to break the law by threatening someone, you'll be found out.
- Never agree to meet with ANYONE you've talked to on the Internet unless the parents give the okay. - honest people will want you to tell your parents for their own protection as well.
- Never get into an online fight. - it takes two to duke it out, so to say...so refusing to escalate things is a wise move. After all, you don't know if the person with whom you're fighting has 246 cyber-bullying friends who will then try to harrass you.
- Never feel like you HAVE to chat. - if someone makes you uncomfortable online via nasty language or other thingees, just close the chat window or log off. They do not control your actions and have no power over you.
One other thing to remember - always monitor your child's Internet activity. Don't put a computer in their room where they can shut the door and you have no idea what other folks are doing to them!
Some resources for restricting/tracking what your kids do online are:
Now that we have the basics down, let's start off with:
Step 1 - CyberBullying
Cyberbullying is the new and disgusting way kids will try to abuse one another. Sad but true.
Cyberbullying can range from aggressive verbal attacks via chatrooms and virtual settings to creating a website that defames another child to sending harrassing emails/ messages to....lots of really bad things.
Get the facts about cyberbullying, and be ready to step in if your kids fall prey to it. More info can be found at:
Bullying and cyberbullying is a lousy thing to deal with. Give your kids the skills they need so they do not fall prey to it and become a victim.
The above outlines the badness...what about the goodness of the Internet for kids? Let us now move into:
Step 2 - Kid-friendly Spots
Keep in mind that while you should still keep track of your kids' activities no matter where they are, you can let them enjoy some structured interactions at sites like:
- Disneys Virtual Magic Kingdom - a virtual recreation of Disney's theme parks. It is meant for chidren ages 10-14, and is only "open" when Disney folk can monitor it.
- Neopets - a virtual pets place, it offers lots of creativity for its users. My kid has learned about marketing, story-writing, how to use html to improve her page and more.
- Fun Sites for Kids - list of educational and fun interactive sites for kids
- Fun Brain - Excellent fun educational site for children of all ages.
- KidsCom - Fun lively entertainment and educational resources
Step 3 - For More Information
Want to see other ways kids can safely use the Internet?
Check out:
- Virtual Tours - see the factory in which a car is made, tour innovative manufacturing at Stanford, and more. Also search on Google for
virtual factory tours for more resources.
- Virtual Museum Tours - visit bunches of museums online.
- Discovery Kids games - build your own game, create cool whizzballs, more.
- Kids Sites - Reviews of fun kid-friendly sites.
- Surfing The Net With Kids - lots of reviewed kid-friendly sites.
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