Success ~: Teaching Internet Safety To Your Child

Personal Safety

Just as in the physical community, children need to be aware that they should focus on their personal safety in the cyber community. Children should understand that, even online, there are “strangers”. They should understand that strangers in the cyber community may try to do things to trick them into revealing personal information about themselves and those that they love and care about. They should be taught:
1. Children should never provide any type of personal information to people that they communicate with, or play with in the online environment. This includes information like their name, age, birthday, address, the name of their city, the name of their school, their telephone number, and similar types of information.
2. Children should never provide a picture of themselves while online. While it is important to create a sense of personalization while in a community, this can be done with avatars, and other types of pictures online.
3. Children should never agree to meet up with someone that they have met on the internet. This type of situation has resulted in the injury and deaths of several children in the world.
4. If children come across information that they feel uncomfortable with, they should be informed that it has to be reported to their parents immediately, or another trusted adults. This may include pictures, stories, websites, and any other type of information that makes them feel as if they could be sick, or feel “weird” or they consider “grown up”, or “uncool”.
5. Children should be issued rules that help them to navigate in areas that are appropriate for their age group.
If you implement the use of these strategies when teaching kids internet safety, you will find that your children will have a better understanding of the online community, the rules that govern it, and the means to stay safe while online.