Your Children Need To Be Safe When They Are Surfing The Internet

Certainly you want to protect your children when they are using the internet, but policing them every minute may bring the opposite results you want. How do you know what they are doing without watching them? Hopefully your children have enough common sense to avoid trouble, and then you will have no trouble trusting them. Looking over someone's shoulder or spying is not necessarily a very good way to give guidance. When your children are on the internet, they need some freedom, and the following tips will show you how, while still protecting them. Have a word with your kids about internet safety. When you are quizzing your kids about what they've been up to online, or when you've placed specific limits on them, let them know that you're just doing it because you're concerned and want to look after them. Of course, kids will probably not appreciate this, however if they ever have any problems they might feel more at ease to talk to you regarding it. Make sure you fully educate them regarding the potential dangers of the internet, as well as educating them about people not always being who they say they are. By inviting your children to talk to you if they ever feel uncomfortable, in addition to talking freely with them about any concerns you may have, they will be a lot more safe. When you are trying to protect your children, it is possible to get carried away too much. Too much supervision and being overprotective will cause your children to look for other ways to do what they want. Sometimes the easiest way to get children to do something is to tell them how bad it is for them, so just not allowing internet use probably won't work. Whether offline or online it doesn't make any difference, there is no way that you can protect your children all the time. You can't know everything that your child is doing offline, so you won't be able to know everything that they do online either. Protecting your children is to keep them from becoming a victim, and that is what you should try to teach them. Facebook is most certainly one of the most popular places to meet online for teens and adults alike. You need to realize that if your kid is pre-teen then he or she should not be using Facebook at all. Even though Facebook will not let those under 13 register, a lot of children are able to get around this specific rule. Really you do not want your kid to start lying about how old they are to register an account, as this is trouble waiting to happen. Kids in their early teens can use Facebook, but you should keep an eye on their activities. If you don't have an account yourself, get one and befriend your kids, whether they like it or not! This will allow you to keep tabs on who they are friends with, what they're posting on their page, etc. If you are familiar with your child's activities then you will be able to look after them much easier. Tell your child that you want to know what they are doing and who they are talking to when they are online, if they try to resist your involvement. You do not need to live in fear about this but it is sensible for you to take basic precautions.