Internet Issues:

The Role of Parents


 Test Your Beginning Knowledge  

How much do you already know about keeping your children safe on the Internet? Let's take a quiz and see!

Click here for a safety quiz designed for parents and other adults.

Click here for an interactive safety quiz designed for children and teenagers (from Parents' Guide to the Internet)

  A Perspective on the Role of Parents and the Internet

  
"Ultimately, the parent's involvement is critical for successful online experiences--just as it is to avoid other pitfalls of life such as alcohol or drug abuse. Parents need to educate their children about online safety, including the possibility of encountering pedophiles, which means that parents themselves must become familiar with the medium...The key step is for parents to become involved, regardless of their level of technical savvy, and maintain a continuing dialogue with their children."

   from The Internet Online Summit: Focus on Children , Dec. 1-3, 1997

What Parents Can Do to Help Make Their Children's Online Experiences Safer
 
  • Learn About the Internet

    Hopefully, that's why you're here! The P.I.E. initiative was designed to help you learn more about the Internet in order to help you keep your children safe online.

    Keep in mind, though, that the best first step is to experience the new technology rather than trying to thoroughly understand it. We are able to drive cars without being able to fully explain how they work. Once you begin to experience using the Internet, learning to navigate will become easier and easier.

    Also, consider taking advantage of other opportunities to learn about the Internet such as those offered by the Baltimore County Public Library.
 

 
  • Get Involved in Your Child's "Online" Life

    Regardless of your level of technical savvy, it is important to maintain a continuing dialog with your children about Internet use and to be aware of their online activities. Click here for some suggestions from Parry Aftab regarding how to begin that dialog.

    Respond thoughtfully and carefully. How you respond to your children when they tell you about something they encountered online will determine whether or not they confide in you the next time. Safety experts suggest that children and teenagers need to know that they can bring online incidents to a parent's attention without fear of being blamed or having the Internet banned from their home.

    Most parents have rules regarding how their children should deal with strangers, which movies and TV shows they may watch, which stores they're allowed to enter, and where and how far from home they may travel. Just as these rules help to keep children and teenagers safe, rules about Internet use can establish safe online behavior. Click here for some suggested rules and tips for safe Internet use.
 

   

Suggested Parental "Tips" for Keeping Children Safe Online  
  • Place the computer with Internet access in a "family room" rather than in a child's bedroom or other secluded location in the house. Check the screen periodically as you walk by to show that you are interested in what your child is doing online.
  • Monitor the amount of time your children spend online. Encourage them to make the Internet just one of the many activities in which they are involved. Discourage excessive hours on the Internet at any age.
  • Have your children show you where they go when they're online. Let them teach you what they know.
  • Get to know their online friends, just as you would expect to meet their other friends. Be aware of any email or chat with strangers.
  • Monitor your telephone and credit card bills for possible charges related to particular online sites. Check out any unfamiliar numbers or charges.
  • Make sure that your children are aware of rules for online safety. Require them to comply with the rules you establish.
  • Consider using parental control tools to assist you in keeping your children safe.

Suggested Online Safety Rules for Children and Teenagers  
  • Keep you identity private. Do not give out your full name, address, school name, telephone number, parents' names, etc. or any other information that could help someone determine your actual identity. The same applies to your family and friends. Do not give out financial information
  • Avoid making plans to get together with someone you've "met" online. This situation has the greatest potential for danger to your safety, because when you're online, you never know if the people you meet are who they say they are.

    In rare cases, you may feel that it is appropriate to have a face-to-face meeting. If your parents decide that it's okay, make sure that the meeting takes place in public and that a parent or other adult is with you.
  • Tell your parents if you come across information on the Internet that makes you feel uncomfortable.
  • Do not respond to email, chat comments, or other messages that are hostile, mean, threatening, obscene, or suggestive. Ignore the sender and end the communication as quickly as possible. Tell a parent right away so that they can contact your Internet service provider to avoid the problem in the future.
  • Do not send messages that are hostile, mean, etc. or that use bad language. You should never post anything on the Internet that you wouldn't want the world to see.
  • Do not send your picture over the Internet or by regular mail to someone without your parent's permission.
  • Never share your passwords, even with friends. These have a way of ending up in the wrong hands.


Websites Devoted to Online Safety Rules

There are many excellent websites containing specific online safety rules. Some are designed for parents; others for children. Before establishing your own rules, you might want to check these out.
  Parents' Guide to the Internet: Sophia's Safe Surfing Club from Parry Aftab

A list of safety tips written in elementary school language. Includes an interactive quiz which will result in a permit being issued for safe surfing.		   My Rules for Online Safety from Child Safety on the Information Highway

Safety tips for children in the intermediate grades.		  
  Basic Rules of Online Safety for Teens
from Teen Safety on the Information Highway

Safety tips for middle and high school students.		  

TechKnow Kids Interactive Rules of the Road from PBS

An interactive site designed to teach late elementary to middle schools students some Internet safety rules.

  
  Tips and Tools for Parents: Keeping Kids Safe Online  from The Children's Partnership

A well-developed "tip sheet" designed for parents which focuses on each of three areas of the Internet--email, the Web, and chat rooms. Each area is explored in depth with a discussion of positive benefits as well as risks, a range of parenting tips most relevant to that particular area, and an explanation of what parent control tools can do for each area.		   Tips for Safe Traveling from the U. S. Dept. of Education

This guide is for parents and gives suggestions of rules to consider when establishing your "family policy."		  


Parental Control Tools
 

A variety of tools have been developed which use different strategies to allow a parent to control what his/her child does online.
Keep in mind, however, that no tool is 100% reliable. These tools may at times allow access to inappropriate information as well as blocking sites that are valuable. Computer savvy children may also be able to work around the controls.
Some of the features that these control tools include are the ability to block certain sites, to curtail email, to disable "instant messaging," to restrict chat room access, and to control available times during the day for Internet use.

You can locate these tools from one of the following:

  • Your Internet Service Provider (ISP)

    Ask the company which provides your Internet account if they provide any control features or tools for parents. Some do this for free.
  • Your local computer store or the company's website.

    You can buy or sometimes download from the Internet various programs considered "blocking" or "filtering" software, such as CyberPatrol and Bess. Each of these programs is described in detail at their websites. Some of these programs are:

    Net Nanny    Bess   Cyber Patrol
    SurfWatch    CYBERsitter   Internet Filter
    Cyber Snoop    X-Stop    SafeKids List of Filtering Software


    Note: For a comparison of several of these tools from Parents 'Guide to the Internet, click here.
  • Your web browser and ratings systems

    Parental control "ratings systems" for websites are being developed. These will work with your browser to allow you to visit only the sites deemed suitable based to their "ratings.".For more information about ratings, click on the following sites:
       SafeSurf Net Shepherd


  


Organizations Dedicated to Online Safety

Several organizations devoted to online safety provide education and support for the community at large. Several of these organizations actively patrol the Internet, collaborating with law enforcement as needed. All are resources for online safety.
National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children		  CyberAngels  Soc-Um  CyberMoms
   

 Enough is Enough

 SafeKids


Next

Session One Introduction

Facts and
Figures

  Definitions

 Benefits
and Risks

 Role of Parents

 Role of BCPS

 Content Evaluation

 Session Evaluation

 Feedback