Helpful Internet Tips for Parents

Oct. 17, 2007 — -- 1. Spend time with your children online. Have them teach you about their favorite online destinations.

2. Talk to your child about sexual victimization and potential online danger. Explain that whatever they are told online may or may not be true.

3. Teach your children never to give out personal information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number to anyone they meet online.

4. Keep the computer out of your child's bedroom. Put it in a common room like the kitchen or living room.

5. Do not install webcams. It is dangerous to put images on the Internet.

6. Create your own profile and search for your child's social networking page. Talk to your child about what information is appropriate to post on their page. See who they are associating with online.

7. Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software. If necessary, block your child's access to MySpace by going to www.k9webprotection.com.

8. Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your child's school, the public library, and at the homes of your child's friends. These are all places, outside your normal supervision, where your child could encounter an on-line predator.

9. Instruct your children never to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met online.

10. Never allow your children to send a picture of themselves to someone they chat with on the computer.

11. Monitor the amount of time spent online -- especially at night. Children online are at the greatest risk during the evening hours.

12. Be mindful of your child receiving phone calls from men you don't know or making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don't recognize. Most predators want to talk to the children on the telephone. They often engage in "phone sex" with the children and often seek to set up an actual meeting for real sex.

Sources: FBI and ABC News