Keeping your children safe online should be priority especially if your child has their own PC kept in their rooms. Unfortunately a lot of parents don’t realist just how much of a negative effect this has on their children. I was fortunate enough to have found out the easy way by simply reading up a lot online about the subject and ensuring that I could find the best way to keep my children safe online.

Read the rest of this entry »

Parents need to become more aware of what is going on with their children all the time. Just like you would keep your children safe from molesters, kidnappers and the list goes on, you also need to keep your children safe online because these people know that it is becoming increasingly easier for them to catch your children online than ever before. The problem is very simple, parents are just not well equipped enough to know that how to keep their children safe online and that is why you will find a few suggestions below. Read it, remember it and make use of it. Your children depend on it!

Keeping children safe online means teaching them to be smart, responsible users of the Internet. Click on an age group to see tips from WiredSafety.org’s Parry Aftab.

Read the rest of this entry »

Many times a child will show signs that he or she is feeling threatened. Keep an eye on your child’s behavior and patterns to ensure that they don’t fall victim to the many sorts of internet predators and cyber bullies out there. I don’t expect you watch them like hawks of course, but being a parent you should have an idea of the ups and downs and ins and outs of you child’s’ behavior.

Read the rest of this entry »

I cannot emphasis how important it is to ensure that your children get the best protection from internet predators. It keeps their mental development steady and gives both you and your child a sense of protection. This is what I lost out on as a child and that is I emphasis it so much in these articles!

Read the rest of this entry »

Cyberbullying happens over the internet and mobile phones. It is harder to prevent because on the internet people can use different names in chat rooms, or send messages from temporary email addresses. The most common methods of cyberbullying include but are not limited too:

* chat rooms, blogs and forums – although many of these are moderated, people involved in discussions can be sent abusive responses
* text messaging – abusive and threatening texts can be sent to mobile phones
* picture and video clip messaging – offensive images can be sent to mobile phones
* email – new addresses can be set up in minutes and used to send offensive messages and images
* social networking and personal websites – messages and images can be posted in the relevant sections of these sites
* Instant Messenger – quicker than email, this allows users to have conversations
* webcams – usually used to view each other when chatting online, children can also be sent abusive images or encouraged to act in an inappropriate way while being filmed
* Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) – online software used by schools to enable staff and pupils to interact with each other, abusers can use the various forms of communication to send offensive images and messages
* video hosting sites – children may be accidentally exposed to pornographic images or even find themselves the subject of films being shown

What parents can do?

As with other types of bullying it is important for parents to listen to their child and react with sympathy – children should know that bullying is always wrong and that seeking help is the right thing to do.

Try the following tips to help keep your child safe from abuse:

* encourage your child to talk to you about anything that’s upsetting them
* make sure they only use moderated chat rooms
* get them to show you any abusive or offensive messages they’ve received and keep a record of them
* tell them never to respond to any abusive messages or calls – this is frequently what the abuser wants
* tell them to avoid giving their name, email address or mobile phone number to people outside their circle of friends and family
* change email address or telephone number if the abuse continues
* report any abuse to the police, your child’s school, the internet service provider, the website manager/moderator or the mobile phone company
* install computer software to ensure that you only receive emails from people you have chosen and to block unwanted images

Welcome to Best Internet Child Safety.