The Internet is an important invention for the world and one that our children are very eager to take advantage off. However there are certain dangers with this, if you understand the online dangers to your children, you can then protect them from falling prey to schemes, traps, scams, and dangerous people lurking beyond the anonymity.
Monitoring Your Children Online
Social networking websites are becoming more and more popular among children of all ages. Consider the information on a child’s Bebo profile. Do you want people to see half naked pictures of your child? Do you want teachers or potential employers to see your child half-naked? This leads to one of the more serious and heartbreaking dangers online, the threat from paedophiles and other people who want to hurt or take advantage of children online. Because you can’t see the person talking to your child in chat rooms, via instant messaging systems, or through social networking websites, you can not be sure what they look like. A lot of men and women use the Internet as a way to lure children out to meet them. If your child has photographs of themselves on the Internet, then adult males and females may use this for less than innocent purposes.
It is important you monitor the messaging programs your child is using. This is how children communicate with one another, even more so than cell phone messages these days! You need to keep on eye on this. You don’t want to think your child is doing their homework only to see they’re exchanging pornographic images or shady MP3s. Many children use the Internet as a way of picking on other children, and you do not want to find out that your child has been bullied or is bullying other kids via instant chat and the internet.
Do not think for one minute that identity theft can’t happen to a child. This can affect anyone on the Internet. All it takes is for a child to give their personal information to a stranger. It can ruin a child’s credit (before they even knew they had a credit rating!) and can be complicated if someone starts breaking the law using your child’s name (i.e. breaking into places using your child’s email account). Likewise, if your child gives out their personal information, it could put you and your family at risk of theft or worse.
One final point to think about is the amount of time that your child spends using the computer. This is worth monitoring. You do not want their whole social world to exist on the Internet. Besides being called a nerd this can lead to isolation and depression, especially to those children already lacking social confidence. A healthy life is about balance and you need to make sure that you’re not letting your children live their whole lives in cyberspace!
