Keeping Kids Safer on the Internet:
Tips for Parents and Guardians
Allowing kids to go online without supervision or ground rules
is like allowing them to explore a major metropolitan area by themselves.
The Internet, like a city, offers an enormous array of entertainment
and educational resources but also presents some potential risks. Kids
need help navigating this world.
Where Do Kids Connect?
- Kids go online almost anywhere. They surf the Internet and send messages
from a home computer or one at a friend’s home, library, or school.
- Kids connect at coffee shops and other “hotspots” using
laptops and wireless connections.
- Internet-enabled, video-game systems allow them to compete against
and chat with players around the world.
- Wireless devices enable kids to surf the Web
and exchange messages, photographs, and short videos from just about
anywhere.
You can’t watch your kids every minute, but you do need to use
strategies to help them benefit from the Internet and avoid its potential
risks.
By exploring the Internet with your kids, you greatly expand its
capacity as an educational tool. By providing guidance and discussion
along the way, you increase kids’ online skills and confidence
along with their ability to avoid potential risks. And you might be
surprised by what kids teach you at the same time.
You can't take it back...think before you type.
We at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children®
(NCMEC) urge you to do one of the single most important things to promote
safety — begin a dialogue with your kids about the rewards
and potential risks of Internet use. We also encourage you to visit
the NetSmartz®
Workshop at www.NetSmartz.org and
NetSmartz411sm at www.NetSmartz411.org or call 1-888-NETS411 (638-7411)
to learn more about about online safety.
It’s up to parents and guardians to assess the potential risks
and benefits of permitting their kids to use the wide range of Internet
websites and applications available. This brochure provides a list
of the most popular online activities for kids along with the strategies
for and benefits of reducing the potential risks associated with those
activities.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, 23 percent of
nursery school children in the United States use the Internet, 32
percent of kindergartners go online, and by high school 80 percent
of children use the Internet.1
Browsing the Internet
Benefits
Browsing the Internet is like having the world’s largest library
and entertainment system at your fingertips. Kids are able to read
stories, tour museums, visit other countries, play games, look at photographs,
shop, and do research to help with homework.
Potential Risks
- Kids may come across websites containing adult images or demeaning,
racist, sexist, violent, or false information.
- It is hard for kids to distinguish reliable sources of information
from less reliable ones. Some believe because information is posted
online it must be true.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Choose search engines carefully. Some are specifically designed for
kids, and others offer kid-safe options.
- Tell kids when they come across any material making them feel scared,
uncomfortable, or confused to immediately tell you or another trusted
adult.
- Help kids find information online. By searching the Internet together
you help them find reliable sources of information and distinguish fact
from fiction.
Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer filters to prevent
kids from accessing inappropriate websites. Contact your ISP about
what safe-search options they offer. Remember, as a consumer
you have a right to choose an ISP with the services meeting your
family’s
needs.
Using E-mail
Benefits
Adults and kids use e-mail to communicate rapidly and cost-effectively
with people all over the world. E-mail transmits messages, documents,
and photographs to others in a matter of seconds or minutes.
Potential Risks
- Kids are able to set up private accounts through free Web-based,
e-mail services without asking permission from parents or guardians.
- Anyone using e-mail is vulnerable to receiving “spam,”
messages from people or companies encouraging recipients to buy something,
do something, or visit a particular website. Spam may be sexually
suggestive or offensive in other ways.
- Senders sometimes disguise themselves, pretending to be someone else
— a friend or acquaintance, a well-known bank, a government agency
— for illicit purposes. This is known as phishing.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Talk with your kids about their e-mail accounts, and discuss the
potential risks involved. Remind them to never share passwords with
anyone but you, not even their closest friends.
- Before you sign up with a service provider, research the effectiveness
of its spam filters. You may also purchase spam-filter software separately.
- Teach kids not to open spam or e-mails from people they don’t
know in person. Remind them not to respond to any online communication
in a sexually provocative way. Ask them to show you suspicious communications.
- If your kids receive e-mail containing threats or material making
them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused, report it to your
service provider. Your provider ’s address is usually found
on their home page.
Instant Messsaging
Benefits
Instant Messaging (IM) allows adults and kids to have conversations
in “real time” through their computer. IMing is particularly
appealing to kids who use abbreviated lingo to communicate with each
other. Most IM services offer a feature showing a user’s contacts,
known as a “buddy list,” which tells the user whether a “buddy” is
online and available to chat.
Potential Risks
IM is one method used to cyberbully, harass, or intimidate others.
It may also be used to engage kids in a sexually explicit conversation.
IM interactions may go from an innocent conversation to a sexually
explicit or otherwise inappropriate exchange without warning.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Remind kids to IM only people they know in real life and who have
been approved by you.
- Use privacy settings to limit contact to only those on your child’s
buddy list. Make sure other users cannot search for your child by
his or her e-mail address and username.
- Make sure both your kids and you are familiar with the blocking
features available on most IM services. Tell your kids to block any
sender they don’t know who IMs them.
- Take the time to learn the online lingo used by kids so you understand
what they are talking about with each other.
- What’s a P911? It’s shorthand for “parent alert” — a
code some kids use to let others know a parent or guardian is watching.
If you have trouble translating your kids’ online “lingo,” visit
www.NetSmartz.org. There you’ll find a list of popular terms
and abbreviations used in IM and chatrooms.
Social Networking
Benefits
Social-networking websites allow kids to connect with their friends
and other users with similar interests. Kids socialize and express
themselves by exchanging instant messages, e-mails, or comments and
posting photographs, creative writing, artwork, videos, and music to
their blogs and personal profiles.
Some 55% of online teens have profiles on a social-networking website
such as Facebook or MySpace.2
A survey of 10 to 17 year olds revealed 34% had posted their
real names, telephone numbers, home addresses, or the names of
their schools online where anyone could see; 45% had posted their
dates of birth or ages; and 18% had posted pictures of themselves.3
Potential Risks
- Some websites and services ask users to post a “profile”
with their age, sex, hobbies, and interests. While these profiles
help kids “connect” and share common interests, potential
exploiters may pretend to be someone else and can and do use these
profiles to search for victims.
- Kids sometimes compete to see who has the greatest number of contacts
and will add new members to their lists even if they don’t know
them in person.
- Kids can’t “take back” the online text and images
they’ve entered. Kids may post information and images that
are provocative and inappropriate. Once online, “chat” as
well as other Web postings become public information. Anything posted
online may be saved and forwarded to an unlimited number of users.
Remind kids once images are posted they lose control of them and
can never get them back.
- Kids have been reprimanded by their school administrators and families;
denied entry into schools; and even not hired because of dangerous,
demeaning, or harmful information found on their personal websites
or blogs.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Urge kids to use privacy settings to restrict access to profiles
so only those on their contact lists are able to view them.
- Remind kids to only add people they know in person to their contact
lists.
location.
- Encourage them to choose appropriate screennames or nicknames—such
as those that refer to sports and interests, but are not sexual,
violent, or offensive. Make sure the name doesn't include information
revealing their identity or location.
- Visit social-networking websites with your kids, and exchange
ideas about what you think is safe and unsafe.
- Ask your kids about the people they are communicating with online.
- Insist your kids never give out personal information or arrange
to meet in person with someone they’ve met online without
first checking with you.
- Encourage your kids to think before typing, “Is
this message hurtful or rude?” Also urge your kids not to respond
to any rude or harassing messages or ones making them feel scared,
uncomfortable, or confused. Have them show you such messages.
Cellular Telephones/Wireless Devices and Texting
Benefits
Many parents and guardians look at cellular telephones as a necessity
for their kids. It is reassuring to know they may reach you or call
for help in an emergency. Cellular telephones/wireless devices may
also be used to send text messages, images, and videos.
Potential Risks
- Cellular telephones make it easy for kids to communicate with others
without their parents’ or guardians’ knowledge.
- Kids are increasingly using cellular telephones/wireless devices
to take sexually explicit photographs of themselves and send them
to their friends. Once these photographs are sent, there is no way
of getting them back. In some instances children have been prosecuted
for production of child pornography for taking these pictures.
- Kids may also take embarrassing or revealing photographs of others
and post them to the Internet, leaving victims few options to defend
or protect themselves from this form of bullying.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Create rules about the appropriate use of cellular telephones/wireless
devices and set limits, including who your kids may communicate with
and when they may use their cellular telephones/wireless devices
- Review cellular-telephone/wireless-device records for any unknown
numbers and late-night telephone calls
- Teach your kids to never post their cellular telephone number anywhere
online
- Talk to your kids about the possible implications of sending sexually
explicit or provocative images of themselves or others
- Think about
removing the Internet features from your kid’s
cellular telephone/wireless device through your service provider
or consider creating settings to control or prohibit access to the
Internet, e-mail, or text messaging
Posting Video and Photographs Online
Benefits
Webcams, cellular telephones, and digital cameras allow kids to post
videos, photograhs, and audio files online and engage in video conversations.
Kids often use this equipment to see each other as they IM and chat.
Webcams are often used to help kids stay
in touch with family members and friends including
traveling parents and guardians and those living in other areas.
Potential Risks
- Webcam sessions and photographs may be easily captured and saved,
and users may continue to circulate those images online. In some
cases people believed they were interacting with trusted friends
but later found their images were distributed to others or posted
on websites.
- Capturing, sending and posting sexually provocative and inappropriate
images may lead to legal implications and other unexpected offline
consequences.
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Kids should use webcams or post photographs online only with your
knowledge and supervision.
- Remind your kids to ask themselves if they would be embarrassed
if their friends or family saw the pictures or videos they post
online. If the answer is yes, then they need to stop.
- Remind kids to be aware of what is in the camera’s field of
vision and remember to turn the camera off when it is not in use.
- Caution kids about posting identity-revealing or sexually provocative
photographs. Don’t allow them to post photographs of others — even
their friends — without permission from their friends’ parents
or guardians. Remind them once such images are posted they lose
control of them and can never get them back.
Online Gaming
Benefits
Online gaming involves playing a game over a computer network, often
on the Internet, or Internet-enabled game console. Online gaming allows
kids to engage with and challenge players from around the world. Many
online games have text, chatroom, or IM functions, allowing players
to communicate as a group or in private. Some even allow users to speak
directly to each other using voice-enabled headphones. In addition
online games often have associated online communities for players to
share experiences and strategies. In many ways online games and gaming
communities serve as a forum for social networking.
Potential Risks
- There is never any guarantee your kid is communicating with other
kids, those they know in person, or those approved by you
- As with IM or social-networking websites, kids may be exposed to
inappropriate language, harassed, threatened, or asked sexually explicit
questions
Tips to Minimize Potential Risks
- Keep the gaming console and computer in a common area of the home
so you are able to more easily supervise
- Set rules, including how long your kids may play, who they are
allowed to play with, and what types of games are appropriate
- Check out rating systems to help you decide which games to allow
in your home
- Look into what types of protections or parental controls
the gaming console allows and make use of them
Other Ways to Enhance Kids' Online Safety Skills
Begin a Dialogue With Your Kids About Internet Use
Because we use the Internet in different ways, kids and adults may
learn from each other. By talking about Internet use with your kids,
you are opening the door to discussing the important issues of personal
safety and helping them engage in responsible behavior. Use this brochure
as a starting point, or visit www.NetSmartz.org to find safety resources
for both kids and adults.
Consider Rating, Blocking, Monitoring, and Filtering Applications
for Your Computer
Software and services are available to help parents and guardians
set limits on kids’ Internet use. Most computer-operating systems
have optional filters allowing parents and guardians to block websites
they consider inappropriate. Some services rate websites for content.
Some programs prevent users from entering information such as names
and addresses, and others keep kids away from chatrooms or restrict
their ability to send or read e-mail. Monitoring programs allow you
to see where your kids go online. But remember these programs and
services don’t develop kids’
own sense of safety, and they are not substitutes for parental/ guardian
communication, supervision, and involvement.
Make Internet Use a Family Activity While Encouraging Critical
Thinking
By setting aside time to go online with your kids you not only become
more aware of what they do online, you reinforce positive Internet
skills. Helping your kids with a research project is a great opportunity
for them to learn about and distinguish which websites provide reliable
information, are simply someone’s opinion, and are to be avoided
entirely. And when looking at e-mails together ask, “Are these
people who they seem to be?” These are prime opportunities to
help kids develop their critical-thinking skills.
Set Reasonable Rules
Work with your kids to develop reasonable rules. Consider setting
rules about the time of day, length of time, people they may communicate
with, and appropriate areas for them to visit while online. Also explain
to your kids why these rules are important.
Encourage Your Kids to Go to You When They Encounter Problems
Online
It’s important to reassure kids if they encounter problems online
or view something disturbing, it’s not their fault. Discussing these
issues openly may reduce their fear of going to you if they encounter
something online making them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused.
Be a resource. Let them know if they share the experience with you, you
will try to help, not punish, them. At the same time help them understand
what happened and avoid similar situations in the future.
Online Resources for Families
NetSmartz® Workshop
The NetSmartz Workshop is an online, educational resource for kids
of all ages and their trusted adults to help foster positive choices
when on the Internet and in the real world.
The NetSmartz program is designed to be used in homes, schools, and
communities. It provides parents,
guardians, educators, community leaders, and law-enforcement officials
with a wide variety of resources including activities, games, presentations,
safety pledges, and videos. These resources help
trusted adults build kids’ safety
awareness, prevent their victimization, and increase their self-confidence
on- and offline.
The NetSmartz Workshop is a leader in safety education for youth,
parents and guardians, and educators. The program was created to spearhead
a movement toward safer and more responsible use of the Internet by
kids and teens. Download the free resources at www.NetSmartz.org.
NetSmartz411
NetSmartz411 is a free, first-of-its-kind service
provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and funded by the
Qwest Foundation. It was designed to raise Internet-safety awareness and provides
general information about computers and the Web.
Parents, guardians, and educators are able to find this resource at
www.NetSmartz411.org. The website contains a searchable knowledgebase
of frequently asked questions regarding computers and the Internet,
along with the opportunity to ask questions of experts. Questions may
be submitted via the website anytime or called into experts at 1-888-NETS411
(638-7411), Monday through Friday, from Noon to 8:00 p.m., EST.
CyberTipline
Visit www.cybertipline.com
or call 1-800-843-5678 to report the sexual exploitation of children
on- and offline. The CyberTipline accepts information about the
possession, manufacture, and distribution of child pornography;
online enticement of children for sexual acts; child victims of
prostitution; sex tourism involving children; extrafamilial child
sexual molestation; unsolicited obscene material sent to a child;
misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on
the Internet. Your information will be forwarded to law enforcement
and Internt Service Provider(s) for investigation and review when
appropriate.
Don't Believe the Type
Created by the Ad Council and NCMEC, “Don’t Believe the
Type,”
is part of a public-service campaign specifically designed to help
teens recognize the dangers of the Internet, situations to avoid,
and how to
“surf safer.” Visit www.cybertipline.com, and click on
the “Don’t
Believe the Type” link to view the website.
Think Before You Post
A part of NCMEC’s Ad Council public-service campaign, “Think
Before You Post” is a public-service campaign warning kids about
the dangers of posting inappropriate pictures and videos of themselves
online. Visit www.cybertipline.com and click on the “Think Before
You Post” link to view the website.
Tips for Parents and Guardians
- Begin a dialogue with your kids about safe Internet use and supervise
their online activities
- Consider rating, blocking, monitoring, and filtering applications
for your computer
- Make Internet use a family activity
- Encourage your kids’ critical-thinking skills
- Set reasonable rules for going online
- Encourage your kids to tell you when they encounter problems
online
- If they come across lewd, obscene, or illegal material or if
they are contacted by someone who attempts to engage them in
sexual conversation, make a report to NCMEC’s CyberTipline
at www.cybertipline.com or 1-800-843-5678
Find More Help Online
Visit www.NetSmartz.org for a
wealth of additional safety resources including
- Family-discussion starters about online and real-world
safety
- A blog about current and developing Internet and real-world safety
issues
- Informative statistics about kids’ Internet use
- Tips for addressing risks to kids on- and offine
- Commonly used chat abbreviations and acronyms
- At-home activities for talking about safety during teachable moments
Help Us Promote a Safer Internet
If you have information to help NCMEC in the fight against child sexual
exploitation, please report it to the CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com
or 1-800-843-5678.
1 U.S. Department of Education, “Rates
of Computer and Internet Use by Children in Nursery School and Students
in Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade: 2003,” in Issue Brief,
October 2005, page 1, accessed February 9, 2009, at http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005//2005111rev.pdf.
2 Amanda
Lenhart, Mary Madden, Alexandra Rankin Macgill, and Aaron Smith. Teens
and Social Media. Washington, DC:Pew
Internet & American Life Project, December 19, 2007, page ii, accessed
February 26, 2009, at http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Social_Media_Final.pdf.
3 Janis Wolak, Kimberly Mitchell, and David Finkelhor. Online Victimization
of Youth: Five Years Later. Alexandria, Virginia: National Center
for Missing & Exploited Children, 2006, page 50.
Keeping Kids Safer on the Internet was made possible through
the joint efforts and expertise of the National Center for Missing &
Exploited Children® programs noted below.
CyberTipline® is the Congressionally mandated reporting
mechanism for child sexual exploitation. For more information visit
www.cybertipline.com or call 1-800-843-5678.
The NetSmartz® Workshop is an online, educational resource
to help teach kids how to be safer both on- and offline. For more information
visit www.NetSmartz.org.
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, and Grant No. GA97-0001
awarded by the U.S. Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security.
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 or Department of Homeland Security. National
Center for Missing
& Exploited Children®, CyberTipline®,
and NetSmartz® Workshop are registered service marks
of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. NCMEC
Order #168.
Copyright © 2006 and 2009 National Center
for Missing
& Exploited Children. All rights reserved
Keeping Kids Safer on the Internet: Tips for Parents
and Guardians is the National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children’s newest publication addressing Internet safety. This
brochure replaces three earlier NCMEC titles — Child Safety
on the Information Highway, The CyberTipline®: Your Resource
for Reporting the Sexual Exploitation of Children, and Teen
Safety on the Information Highway.
Special thanks to Larry Magid, author of the original Child/Teen
Safety on the Information Highway brochures.
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