Internet Safety

You might want to consider providing a lock on instant messaging, chat rooms, and registration websites, even those on line websites you don't know about because your child is in grave danger from the Internet . Registration websites may ask for personal information such as your name, phone number, email address, even your regular address. Believe it or not your kids are in danger, and it's up to you to save them.

Instant messaging is probably the most dangerous feature we will talk about here today. You can message people without using a firewall. A firewall is an integrated collection of security measures designed to make unauthorized access to a networked computer system prevented. It's basically a protection that doesn't allow viruses or things that do not identify themselves through. This can be very dangerous. Your teen might want to hook up with their friends without paying money for phone calls, taking so long to wait for email, or they might want to talk to their secret boyfriend you don't know about. That last part just was a little joke, but it may be true. Almost every teen has the same excuse for no "but, but, but all my friends have one!". Parents, do not fall for this. Your teens have more keen of a mind than you think. On instant messaging you might want to sneak up behind your kid and see what they are typing. These are some icons that you may not know and are curious about...

=) :smiley face
=( :frown face
-.^ :or will I?
Rofl: rolling on the floor laughing
lol :laugh out loud
omg :oh my God
ppl : people
lmao: laughing my ass off

On instant messaging your child may use smile faces to express their emotions. These are the most common. You may want to look online for other things your children may be typing. A website you may want to look at is, www.protectkids.com

Chat rooms. Chat rooms are the same thing as instant messaging. Whatever they (your kids) do, make sure they don't give out personal information such as age, name, phone number, passwords, address, ect.

I myself is a big softie. If i do something that i'm not supposed to do, I have to tell my parents soon or else i feel even guiltier than I actually am. Do me a favor to ask your kids where they are going to go when they leave the house, and if they don't tell you or say "somewhere" tell them that they aren't going anywhere until you tell me. Look, For all we know, you want your child to be safe twenty four seven. If your child tells you that they are going to meet a so called friend from the Internet that you don't know about, go with them because you don't know who this mystery person is or even if they know who they are going to meet. Always keep an eye on computer chat rooms. Remember, sometimes people always aren't who they say they are. In computer chat rooms everyone can see what you type. On the Internet , the walls don't have ears as much as eyes so be careful on what you say or send. Go over the rules of instant messaging and on line chat rooms with your child before letting them go to the chat rooms. Parents, you may want to visit this awesome site, www.chatdanger.com .
This site tells stories , has safety games of the Internet, it tells how exactly "safe" the Internet is for via email, instant messaging , and even mobile phones! Get involved in your child's life.

One rule you should make is no registration sites. I have recently broken this rule and am receiving a punishment. Writing this essay or should I say paper. Kids go to registration sites very often. Hot mail is a registration site as is Yahoo. Registration sites may ask for name, phone number, age, state which you may live in, gender, ect. You can see why this is dangerous. The registration site may pass on information to a predator and find your child to abduct them. Be careful and make sure you know what registration sites your child is going to so they may never go to another registration site again without asking you first.

Runescape is a massive on line adventure game. This game is almost like an on-line chat room. You can talk to people from all over the world. Even if they are from England. Whatever you type can be seen by everyone who is in that area. Bad words that you say like so called cuss words, will be blocked out by the shift eight sign, *. so if you say something like oh my God, it would show as oh my ***. This site has moderators. They do not catch everything bad that goes on in this game.