| 1. |
Where is the best place to locate your family
computer? |
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A. |
Child's bedroom |
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B. |
Family room |
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C. |
Office in remote area of the home |
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Answer B.The safest location for the
computer is in a room where there is sufficient adult supervision.
But don’t stop there. It’s also critical to know what
other access your child may have including friends’ homes,
libraries, schools, and cellular telephones and other wireless devices.
They may even connect on gaming consoles. Thus have a plan in place
to closely supervise and monitor your children’s online activity
no matter where they are accessing the Internet. |
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| 2. |
Which is the best example of how to protect your children
when online? |
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A. |
Post clear, simple, easy-to-read rules on or near the monitor;
closely supervise your children’s online activity when they
are using the family computer; and monitor your children’s
online activity when they access the Internet from other locations |
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B. |
Only allow your children to use the computer at the public library
or school |
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C. |
Do not allow your children to "surf" the Internet without having
a friend nearby |
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Answer A. Posting clear, simple, easy-to-read
rules is an excellent way to set boundaries for your children’s
Internet use. Consider having your children and you sign the rules,
which should be periodically reviewed. Visit www.NetSmartz.org for
examples of rules. This website provides animated videos, real-life
stories, and safety tips to help you better understand the many different
areas of the Internet. If you have questions about the online world,
visit www.NetSmartz411.org for
guidance customized to your situation. Remember nothing beats your
supervision of and attention to what your children do while online. |
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| 3. |
Your children are completely safe if they only visit
child-friendly chatrooms. |
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True or False? |
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Answer False. It is not recommended
that children visit chatrooms since the potential risks are particularly
high on these websites. Realize anyone may access these websites.
Those who wish to harm children have been known to entice children
in child-oriented chatrooms. Nothing should replace your supervision. |
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| 4. |
What should you do if your children tell you someone
they have "met" online has asked for their telephone number and wants
to meet them in person? |
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A. |
Take away their privileges. |
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B. |
Praise them for telling you this, and discuss with them the reasons
why it is unsafe to meet in person with someone they have first met
online without your supervision. Then make a CyberTipline® report
if you suspect this person is an adult attempting to meet a child. |
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C. |
Tell them it's okay to meet their friend as long as you know where
they are going. |
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Answer B. Rewarding your
children for being forthcoming with information is an excellent way
to keep the lines of communication between your children and you
open. Furthermore, your acceptance and praise of this may encourage
them to report incidents to you in the future. You should remind
your children not to give out personal information or meet anyone
in person without your prior knowledge and consent. If you want to
consider a meeting, ask to talk to the other child’s parents/guardians.
If you agree to the meeting, accompany your child and meet with the
other child and his or her parents/guardians in a public place. If
you suspect this person is an adult trying to meet a child, go to www.cybertipline.com or
call 1-800-843-5678 to make a report. |
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| 5. |
Of the choices below, which is the best screenname
for a child? |
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A. |
katie_ny13 |
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B. |
CuteLitlAngel |
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C. |
Pkdg_329 |
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Answer C. Those online
who wish to harm children often use screennames to select their
potential targets. A screenname should never reveal any identifying information
about a child especially things such as name, age, location, year of birth, school
name, and year of graduation. Something more benign and innocuous, such as answer
C, would be the best choice for a screenname to avoid calling attention to the
user. To make strong screennames or passwords, NetSmartz411SM recommends
using the first letter of each word of a phrase or an acronym that is easy to
remember. Visit www.NetSmartz411.org for
more information. |
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| 6. |
How many children, in a one-year period
of time, received an online sexual solicitation where the solicitor
made or tried to make contact with the child offline via the telephone,
mail, or in person? |
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A. |
1 in 7 children |
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B. |
1 in 25 children |
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C. |
1 in 100 children |
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Answer B. As reported by Janis Wolak, Kimberly Mitchell,
and David Finkelhor in Online Victimization
of Youth: Five Years Later. Alexandria, Virginia: National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children, 2006, page 1, accessed March 26, 2009, at www.missingkids.com/en_US/publications/NC167.pdf. |
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| 7. |
If you are not familiar with computers and the Internet
you should |
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A. |
Visit www.NetSmartz411.org to help educate yourself |
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B. |
Sit down with your children to have them show you websites they
visit and how they navigate through the Internet |
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C. |
Both |
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Answer C. NetSmartz411 is the premiere Internet-safety
helpdesk and hotline for answers to parents’ and guardians’
questions about computers, Internet safety, and the Web. Ask an expert
online at www.NetSmartz411.org or call 1-888-NETS411
(638-7411) to speak
to an Analyst. Furthermore, sitting down with your children at the computer
is not only an excellent way to learn, it is also a great way to connect
with them. And it could be a pleasurable experience for both your children
and you. |
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| 8. |
What should you do if you suspect online "stalking"
or sexual exploitation of a child? |
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A. |
Ignore it, and hope it goes away |
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B. |
Report it to your local law-enforcement agency and the CyberTipline |
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C. |
Change Internet Service Providers |
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Answer B. Immediately report the information
to local law enforcement and the CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com
or 1-800-843-5678. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recommends — if
your children or anyone in your home has received
pornography depicting children, your children have been sexually solicited by
someone who knows your children are younger than 18, or your children have received
sexually explicit images from someone who knows your children are younger than
18 — you keep the computer screen turned off in order to preserve any evidence
for future law-enforcement use. Unless directed to do so by law enforcement,
you should not attempt to copy any of the images and/or text found on the computer.
These recommendations are reported in A Parent’s Guide to Internet Safety.
Calverton, Maryland: U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Investigation,
2000, page 4, accessed March 26, 2009, at www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/parentsguide.pdf. |
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| 9. |
It is OK for your children to post pictures of themselves
on their own personal website, especially if they promise to only
give the website address to people they know. |
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True or False? |
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Answer False. Tell them it is not
safe to put photographs or any type of personally identifying information
on websites. Remember anyone in the world may access a Web page,
and doing these things could make children targets for abduction
or sexual exploitation. It is safer to publish photographs on a website
where you are able to use privacy settings to share them with trusted
family members and friends only, but this is no guarantee the photographs
will not be saved and used in ways you may not realize. If your children
are members of a group with a website, photographs of children published
online should not be accompanied with identifying information. Group
shots are preferable to individual pictures. The group may be identified
as “Members of the basketball team.” Remember, even a
first name may be a tool empowering those who use the Internet to
identify and stalk children. Also many schools are now posting individual
information about students in Internet yearbooks. Check with your
children’s school(s) to determine their policy about posting
information online. |
Copyright © 2003, 2006, and 2009 National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). All rights reserved.
This project was supported by Grant No. 2007-MC-CX-K001
awarded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.
Points of view or opinions in this document are those of the author
and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies
of the U.S. Department of Justice. National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children®, 1-800-THE-LOST®, and CyberTipline® are
registered service marks of the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children. PDF-8A.