Overview

Many parents have a false sense of security regarding Internet use.
Chat rooms can be particularly dangerous for children.
Internet safety resources help parents protect children from becoming victims of crime.
Predators and criminals have used the Internet to find their victims.
Predators constantly visit chat rooms and assume a new name and age to hide their identity.
Internet safety programs often rely on education and empowerment to make technology
a safer place for everyone.
No filtering program will protect your child from all the dangers on the Internet.
Responding to email ads confirms that you have a working account, which often results
in more junk email.
There are software programs that prohibit certain materials from being accessed
from your computer.
Internet safety stresses the following theme: Keep your personal information private.
Internet safety analysts want parents to be aware, not scared.
Internet safety month is celebrated each June.

Effects on Youth

An alarming number of girls have reported that they’ve been sexually harassed in chat rooms.
Unprepared children are extremely vulnerable to online predators.
These predators seduce children by showering them with attention, affection, and kindness.
Opening spam email attachments could cause a computer to be infected with a virus.
Online “phishing” scams coerce children into revealing personal and confidential identity information.

The National Crime Prevention Council is a nonprofit organization that provides
training and technical assistance to help families stay safe from Internet crimes.
Safe Kids, one of the oldest Internet safety sites, was established to help
parents and teens learn safety tips for social networking.
I-SAFE, a nonprofit foundation, is the leader in Internet safety/cyberbullying
education, providing programs/curricula for students and parents.
The Kentucky Center for School Safety is a state agency that provides funding to
each school district in the Commonwealth for educating families about safe schools.

Teach your child that saying or doing anything mean, hurtful, or vulgar is wrong.
Make sure that your child never agrees to meet face-to-face with someone whom he or she
has met online without your knowledge.
Tell your child never to respond to messages that have bad words or are weird or scary.
Remind your child to never send any pictures to anyone without your permission.
Monitor the pictures your child puts on the Internet.
Insist that your child never give out any personal information (e.g., name, phone number, address).
Review all parental control features in the software your child uses.
First educate yourself and then your child on Internet safety.
Know the dangers associated with the websites your child frequents.