Kids on the Internet is just a fact of life these days. While 10 years ago and more you could maybe hold out, now it is required for school work for our daughter to have a school e-mail and get on the Internet. We also recognize the importance of computers and devices, and want our daughter to be able to use them for her success in school and beyond. Regardless of how you feel (and as every year passes and parents are younger, the hesitancy toward computers and the Internet will fade), kids are on the Internet and will be using it younger and younger. It is essential for their futures. This means it is up to you as a parent to guide them toward using it safely.
Some parents may dismiss this section because they trust their kids. They don’t worry about it because they trust their kids. That’s great to trust your kids. We trust our daughter too. Trusting your kids is irrelevant when it comes to online safety. It isn’t your kids you must worry about, as much as it is other people on the Internet. I don’t trust everyone on the Internet, and neither should you, and that is why I take the responsibility to help keep my daughter safe in cyberspace and teach her how to protect herself. It is your job to protect your children and do the same. I’m here to help you do that.
We can trust our children not to access inappropriate sites. (However, this brings up a huge debate of just what sites are appropriate for children of different ages. I won’t get into that here, but it is worth exploring.) Many good kids have accidentally downloaded things from sites that seemed innocent and legit. (It happened to my daughter once while trying to do something with Minecraft, the only game she plays. Fortunately it was just a lot of stuff that wasn’t too harmful. However, it did take me a few hours and a couple calls to a friend to figure out how to get everything off her computer and working correctly again. It did help her learn that there is bad stuff out there.) Other “trusted” kids have gotten into trouble by meeting strangers they met on-line because they were not taught the dangers of such meetings, and parents didn’t pay attention to who their kids were interacting with on-line.
And if you have never accidentally “found” objectionable material/pictures/videos when searching for something, I bet your kids will. (Good chance they have already.) Adult only website names can be deceptively similar to common popular site names using commonly misspelled site names. It is easy to mistype something, and that can be for us our our trusted kids. These sites are counting on just that.
As a parent, you must take an active role in your child’s Internet use. Don’t cop out by saying you trust your children. You need to make sure that you teach your children to be trustworthy, and how to avoid dangers posed by others. This means on and off line.
As parents, we should be teachings our children how to make responsible decisions. But we must remember that often their tech skills will outdistance their judgment. We have to fill in that gap with our greater experience and judgment.
Bottom line: It’s not your kids you have to distrust, it’s the millions of others online. We must arm our children with the skills they need to stay safe on line while still learning and enjoying it. This can only be done by taking an active role in your child’s Internet use. So if you haven’t been, start now. Take an Active Role in Your Child’s Internet Use!