How to Protect Your Kids from Online Predators

Here are a few tips to help you keep your children safe from online predators

• Young children should not use online chat rooms—the dangers are simply too great. As children get older, direct them toward well-monitored chat rooms especially for kids. Encourage even your teenagers to use monitored chat rooms.
• If your children do participate in chat rooms, make sure you know which ones they visit and whom they meet. Monitor the chat rooms yourself to see what kind of conversations are taking place.
• Teach your children never to leave the chat room's public area. Many chat rooms offer private areas where users can have one-on-one chats with other users. These side rooms are often called "whisper" areas. Chat monitors can't see the conversations that take place in whisper areas.
• Keep Internet-connected computers in a common area of the house, never in a child's bedroom. It is much more difficult for a predator to establish a relationship with your child if the computer screen is easily visible. Even when the computer is in a public area of your home, sit with your child when they are online.
• When your children are young, they should share the family e-mail address rather than have their own e-mail accounts. As they get older, you can ask your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to set up a separate e-mail address, but your children's mail can still reside in your account.
• Teach your children to never respond to instant messaging or e-mail from strangers. If your children use computers in places outside your supervision—such as the public library, their school, or their friends' homes—find out what safeguards are used on those computers.
• If all precautions fail and your kids do meet an online predator, don't blame them. The offender always bears full responsibility. Take decisive action to stop your child from any further contact with this person.
• Make sure your kids know that they must not share personal information with other people online. That includes their name, age, where they live, even their school, because all of this information can help a potential predator locate your child.

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