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Q: What dangers
does the Internet pose to child and teen?
A: The Internet
is an uncensored source of information that is not necessarily
designed for children. Exploring the Internet without adult
supervision or guidance can expose a child to sites that
are harmful (sites that advocate violence, that are sexually
explicit, that encourage inappropriate behavior). There
are some people that use chat rooms or Instant Messenger
programs to make inappropriate contact with children.
Q: How do Internet
filters work?
A: There
are many commercial Internet filters on the market. They
generally work on several levels. They often search web
sites for lists of inappropriate words. They often check
the address (url) of web sites against lists of known sites
that are not good for children.
Q: How
effective are Internet filters?
A: There are many
Internet filters available on the market. They tend to look
for identified objectionable sites and filter for inappropriate
words. Recent research indicates that even the best filters
may only capture 75% of the objectionable sites. Filters
occasionally block sites that are of legitimate interest.
Filters can be a helpful tool, but they will not replace
the careful guidance of concerned parents and teachers.
Q: What are
child-safe Search Engines?
A: There
are a number of so-called child safe search engines available
on the web. These sites tend to be directories of known
safe sites that are reviewed by individuals. Using these
directories (e.g. Yahooligans, Kids Click, and Ask Jeeves
for Kids) children can learn to use search strategies without
accidentally stumbling into a dangerous site.
Q: How can
I protect my children from inappropriate Internet sites?
A: Only
allow your students to use the Internet under direct adult
supervision. Pay attention to what the children are doing.
Take inservice courses in the
instructional use of the Internet. Remember that if you
want to use the Internet with your students, you must take
the Internet II course through the Teacher's Center. (See
Teacher Center schedule)
Select the specific sites that
you want the students to use. You can work with your building
librarian on selecting the sites. Link to these sites using
a Web Quest, or link to them through Word or PowerPoint.
Encourage students to
evaluate Internet research sources critically. Demand that
students respect copyright and intellectual property. Include
properly formatted Works Cited lists as part of research
assignments. (For more information about copyright see Education
World's series on copyright and the Internet).
Q: What can
I do as a parent to protect my child?
A: Make the Internet a family
experience. Monitor your child's use and discuss Internet
safety as part of the experience. If you allow chat or IM
be sure that you know who your child is chatting with. Insist
on moderated chat rooms. Consider keeping your Internet
computer in public place (e.g. the family room). Consider
putting a filter on you computer or use the access controls
that may come with your Internet Service provider (e.g.
AOL's Parent Controls). Be sure the children know how to
protect their privacy. (See Yahooligans Parental Guidelines
for further suggestions)
Q: Should I
allow my child to use IM or Chat Rooms?
A: Chat rooms and Instant Messenger
programs are very popular with children. They love to get
online with their friends. Unfortunately students don't
always know who they are really chatting with. Students
are not allowed to use IM or chat rooms at the OA schools
unless they are online as part of an instructional activity
directed by a teacher.
If you allow your children
to use chat or IM at home follow a couple of simple precautions:
1) Know with whom your child is chatting.
2) Only allow
your child to enter moderated chat rooms (i.e. rooms that
are supervised by a responsible adult).
3) Monitor your
child's Internet use, make this a family experience.
Q:
How safe are my childrenI when surfing the internet?
A: Generally
speaking, the Internet is a pretty safe place. But the Internet
can be dangerous, just like there are dangers to anything
you do in real life.
Q:
What are some of the dangers of the Internet?
A: When
you go on the Internet, you risk the chance of downloading
a computer virus, having your personal information sold
to companies, having your surfing patterns and demographics
tracked through cookies, and having your credit card number
stolen.
Q: Is it safe
to trust people I meet on the Internet?
A: There are people on the Internet
who can be trusted, but there are also people on the Internet
who can't be trusted, and it is very difficult to tell them
apart. Your best bet is not to trust anyone you don't know
in person.
Q: What should
I do to protect my kids while they are online?
A: A good idea would be to create
a Internet Usage contract with your kids and post it on
the wall next to the computer. You can view a sample contract
here. Please visit our Parents Tips page.
Q: What can
I tell my child about chatting online?
A: Chatting online, like other
aspects of Internet use, should be governed by common sense.
Remind your child that people in chat rooms are strangers
and are not always who they say they are. Your child should
never give out any personal information, including his or
her real name, address, school, or other ?clues? which might
allow someone to locate them. Again, the bottom line is
that your children will take what you teach them wherever
they go. Teach them to use the filter between their ears.
Q:
My child often receives e-mail with links to adult sites.
Does this mean he's been visiting pornography sites?
A: No. Even if your child does
not visit adult sites, sometimes the adult sites come looking
for visitors. They do this by sending out bulk, unsolicited
e-mail, called spam.? So, before you
punish your child, know that the unwanted e-mail are probably
not a result of your child?s online surfing. There are no
federal laws governing spam yet, but surfing online anonymously
will help reduce the spam your child receives.
Q: How
can I teach my children about Internet safety when I do
not understand the Internet?
A: Safety
on the Internet isn't about technology, it's about common
sense. Just as you wouldn't want your child to meet and
share private matters with a stranger in the real world,
you wouldn't want them to do so online. So, talking with
your children about safety on the Internet just means talking
to them about common sense. The bottom line is that your
children shouldn't do anything online that they wouldn't
do in the real world.
Q: What
are the dangers that I should be concerned about?
A: Yes,
there are dangers on the Internet. If you learn how to protect
yourself you will be safe. One of the dangers that you need
to look out for, are predators. You can protect your children
from predators by monitoring your child's activity. Another
danger is that your child will be able to access pornography
and violent information. You can install filtering software
that will help to block out this type of information. No
system is fool proof, but it can help to block some of it.
There are many more things you can do to be safe. Read through
this article for more information.
Q: What about
my privacy? Am I anonymous while I am on the Internet?
A: No you
are not anonymous while on the Internet. When you log into
your provider you are assigned an IP address/number. Whenever
you log into a Web site, chat room or forum the number can
be traced. Is this dangerous? Not really! With millions
of visitors to the Internet each day, most Websites wouldn't
have the time to track everyone down. Also, your Internet
service provider would have to be willing to give out your
name. Through the use of cookies, Websites can tell if you
have been there before, by checking your cookie file. Some
people are upset by this, but cookies also provide "remember
me" features, which enable great features on the Internet.
Q: Should I
install filtering software, like Net Nanny?
A: Installing filtering software
on your home computer is a personal decision. I do recommend
it for a couple of reasons. First of all, there are several
sites out there that try to trick you to come to pornography.
They trick you by providing redirecting scripts at search
engines and they will have addresses that are very close
to popular children's Web sites. With filtering software
installed it will help to protect you from stumbling into
pornography by accident. Please note that if your child
is determined to view pornography, he or she will figure
out a way to bypass software. Also, no software is completely
fool proof when it comes to blocking inappropriate sites.
What you determine to be inappropriate, may be deemed appropriate
by another. For more information about filtering software
and how it works, visit Your Guide To Filtering Software.
Another option is using a filtered
Internet Service Provider.
Q: Should I
allow my child to chat?
A: This
really depends on your child. Chat rooms are the most common
place to get into trouble. Predators will hang around in
children's chat room and pose as a child. If you decide
to let your child chat, I recommend at least using a monitored
chat room. Remember though, just because it is monitored,
it does not mean that it is completely safe. If you allow
your child to chat, you should be close by and watching
the conversation.
Q: What are
the chances of my child getting to pornography?
A: If you are online, most likely
you will run across pornography. Many of the pornographic
sites use different tricks to get you to visit them. Often
they will have addresses that are very close to popular
children's sites. Another trick is to buy a former child
site and have it redirect to pornography. Unfortunately,
when you search for just about any topic, you will get results
to porn site with foul language. Try a filtered search engine,
to get family friendly results. Another way to protect your
child from viewing pornography is to install filtering software
or get a filtered Internet service provider.
Q: Should I
let my child have their own e-mail address?
A: Letting your child have their
own e-mail address is fine. First explain to them though,
that you will have to monitor it. Before your child opens
his or her mailbox, go through and check the contents. Is
this eavesdropping? Well yes, but there is no such thing
as privacy on the Internet. The e-mail that you receive
could have been read by anyone along it's trip to you. Also,
at some point they will probably receive pornographic spam.
Better safe than sorry here.
Q: Should I
give out my e-mail address when requested at Web sites?
A: Many
sites are requiring registration before you can view their
information. Before
giving out your e-mail address to questionnaires online,
you should check their privacy statement. Privacy statements
are usually followed by the companies that write them, especially
with companies that have registered with Truste. To ere
on the safe side, you may want to go register for a free
e-mail address with About.com or Hotmail. That way you protect
your e-mail account from spam (unsolicited e-mail).
Q: I don't
snoop in my child's diary, why should I check up on their
activity while on the Net?
A: I don't
snoop in my child's diary either, but the Internet is different.
There are predators out there and she may have wandered
into something that she just isn't mature enough to handle.
Drive the point home with your kids that there is no such
thing as complete privacy on the Internet. Any communication
can be incepted by anyone along the way.
Q: How can
we safely find information that we want to look up?
A: First of all, do not try typing
in addresses. This will almost always give you pornography.
It is very common for pornographic sites to use close addresses
to popular ones. For instance the White House is located
at http://www.whitehouse.gov. A pornographic site is at http://www.whitehouse.com.
Try to use a filtered search engine. There are several good
ones available.
Q: Should I
make my child a list of rules?
A: Yes!
If a child doesn't know what is expected and what isn't,
then you can't expect him not to get into trouble. Make
a big deal out of the rules! Make them sign an agreement
and let them know what the consequences will be if they
don't follow them.
Q: How can
I protect myself on the Net?
A: Be VERY
careful to whom you give personal information and where
you post information. Use a "nonsense" password that has
no relation to you as a person; use a combination of numbers,
symbols, and letters and make sure it is at least 6 characters
long. Change your password frequently and NEVER give it
out. Try not to keep it written down. Avoid using the same
password for multiple accounts.
If you are a woman, you may
want to avoid usernames that are obviously female anytime
you are on the Net, depending on the net.community you are
participating in. (Your first initial and last name combine
to make a good, easy to remember, and gender-neutral user
name.) This includes e-mail, IRC channels or chat rooms,
bulletin boards, etc. Learn what kind of anti-abuse procedures
are in place in the community. IRC channels usually have
two or more "ops" (operators) around, who have the power
and authority to ban abusive users from the channel. If
there is no op on a channel, contact the IRCops of your
IRC server; these names are given when you first sign onto
the server. Visit http://www.irchelp.org to learn more.
Check web sites that provide
information about people (like Four 11, WhoWhere, etc.)
to see what information is available about you. Ask that
any entries about you be deleted or edit them to give only
a P.O. Box as an address and a phone number that isn't answered
(maybe the line that gives the time and weather in town).
You may want to visit one of the meta search engines (Google,
Dogpile, MSN, Yahoo, Alta Vista, Fast Search, etc.) and
search for your name as well.
Don't give out credit card
numbers in a non-secure environment. If you're making a
purchase through a web site, read the company's security
policy before you buy. A secure web page will usually have
a URL that begins "https" (instead of "http"), and most
browers will alert you to the fact that you are going to
a secured (or unsecured) page. No reputable merchant will
ask you for your mother's maiden name and Social Security
Number "to verify that you're the card holder." If you are
asked for this information on the Net, it may be part of
a scam by a thief who is looking for gullible victims willing
to hand over their wallets, credit histories, and reputations.
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