Online safety is just as important as keeping your children safe from strangers in the real world. There people all over the place that are looking to hurt children just for fun and it is therefore important that you keep an eye on your children both online and offline. However, it is much less stressful when you have internet filtration software as this helps you to know what is going on with your children all the time and knowing this can help put your mind at ease. Here are a few ways to keep your kids safe:

1. Read the privacy policy statements on the web sites visited by your children. Teach older children to do the same. Look for policies that explain what information is collected, if any, what the web site operator does with it, and how you can choose whether or not the child’s information can be collected.

2. Decide if you are going to give consent. If your child is under age 13, you must decide if you are going to give permission for web sites to collect personal information from them, a requirement of federal law (see Section 3). Be sure to carefully read the privacy policy and terms of service before making this decision.

3. Look for the web seal. Look for a privacy “seal of approval” on the first page, such as that of TRUSTe, www.truste.org. To display the logo, participants must agree to post their privacy policies and submit to audits of their privacy practices. Web seal programs also provide dispute resolution services. TRUSTe displays a seal especially for children under age 13.

4. Establish a contract with your youngster. Encourage your children, especially teens, to take responsibility for their online behavior by establishing a contract with them. The Federal Trade Commission’s “Site Seeing on the Internet” provides sample language, www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/sitesee.shtm. The web guide for parents, GetNetWise, also provides sample contract language, www.getnetwise.org/tools/toolscontracts.php.

5. Set family rules for online computer use. Among those suggested by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.ncmec.org and www.netsmartz411.org) are the following:

• Tell your children never to give out identifying information such as family information, home address, school name, or phone number in chat room discussions and when visiting web sites. They shouldn’t even reveal such data in private e-mail unless they know whom they are dealing with. They must also not send out personal or family photos without your permission. It’s best for children to use “screen names” that are different from their own in chat rooms.

• Explain to children that passwords must never be given to anyone, even someone claiming to be from the online service.

• Warn your children not to respond to messages that are threatening, suggestive, demeaning, or otherwise make you or the child uncomfortable. Tell them to report such messages to you.

• Set reasonable usage rules, including time limits, for your child’s use of the computer. Watch for excessive use of online services late at night. That could be a tip-off there is a problem.

• Try to make online use a family activity. Keep the computer in a family room rather than the child’s bedroom.

• Get to know your children’s online “friends,” much as you try to get to know their other friends. Never permit a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without you attending at least the first meeting.

• Explain that people online may not be who they seem to be. Someone claiming to be a 12-year old girl might actually a 40-year old man.

• Also explain that not everything they read online may be true. Any offer that’s “too good to be true” probably is.

• Learn about the online services your child uses, including social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook. Find out about ways to steer kids to child-friendly sites. If you are a novice to online use, ask your child to show you what they do online and how to log on to online services. Better yet, take a class and learn to navigate the Internet yourself.