Protecting children, family online

Today, the Internet is familiar to everyone including children, who often access social websites designed for adults such as Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and so on.

Every youngster who uses social networking sites should recognize that the Internet is open to all people including many with bad intentions.

There have been reports of some young girls who “disappeared” after meeting new male friends who made acquaintances with via social networking sites. This alone should have forced parents to pay more attention to their children’s activities while using the Internet.

As the “Internet generation”, some teens and preteens are often savvier than their parents in this field. The Internet can always be a threat to children if they are not taught first by adults in how to use the Internet safely. The information children post on social networking sites can make them vulnerable to phishing scams, cyber bullying and particularly Internet predators.

There are several ways parents and adults can help children have safer and enjoyable experiences online. Most parents tell their children not to talk to strangers, but this might not be enough because teens might not regard someone they meet online to be a stranger.

Some websites now offer advice to parents on how to protect children online.

One Internet safety website written in Indonesian can be found at http://internetsehat.org (also accessible at http://ictwatch.com/internetsehat or http://internetsehat.com). This site was prepared by ICT Watch, a non-profit NGO established in 2002 in Jakarta.

It offers guidelines, useful articles on what parents can do to minimize the risk of Internet dangers and inappropriate content; and how to prevent children from sharing sensitive information online.

Information on software (for parents, kid browsers, antispyware, antivirus and firewalls) is also provided.

The main feature of internetsehat.com is its downloadable guidelines (can be used under license), well prepared in several document formats including comics.

Some of the information has been taken and translated from Symantec Corp., the producer of Norton software (http://www.symantec.com).

For those more comfortable with English language, the Symantec website is a good place to learn more and get more familiar with the Internet.

Both internetsehat.com and symantec.com offer guidelines such as introductions to the Internet for children in several age groups; tips on protecting family privacy online; and other information.
Parents can also read and learn from several articles written by Internet safety advocate Marian Merritt.

One piece, for example, suggests easy ways parents can talk and continue dialogs with their children about the Internet. Merritt says these questions should work with children of all ages, although parents still need to adjust the content to be age appropriate. She also suggested parents give children space (physical and time) to respond to their questions.

The suggested questions on social networking sites include:

“Do you really know everybody on your friends list?”

“Do you ever get messages from strangers? How do you handle them?”

“Do you know anyone who’s gone to meet someone offline they’d been talking to online?”

“Are people in your group of friends ever mean to each other online or on the phone? What do they say? Have they ever been mean to you? Would you tell me if they were?”

“Sometimes kids take nude or sexy photos and send them to others. Has that ever happened at your school?“

There are also tips on how to mingle on social networking sites, in which parents are reminded to get approval from their children to access their profiles/pages; to guide them not to tell or reveal too much about their identities; not to approve anyone easily; not to meet the people they meet online because they might not be who they say they are; to tell a trusted adult if an online friend asks to meet them; not to provide any financial details to avoid phishing and other online scams; and to be careful in posting something even when making comments on the others’ pages and in selecting types of pictures to be shared on social networking sites.

Symantec also has a web-based service called OnlineFamily (http://onlinefamily.norton.com), which allows parents to view sites their children visit and lets them know if their children have been exposed to inappropriate or potentially harmful material.