Keeping Your Teen Save While Online
Times are definitely changing and with the Internet and the growing amount of wireless advice, it’s pretty tough to keep tabs on our kids. Internet safety for teens is one of my concerns for parents.
We want to know that they’re safe, but we also want to ensure they have a sense of privacy. A recent study conducted by Justin Patchin, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, showed 91% of the profiles viewed for users 18 and under did not include full names and 40% of youth kept their profiles private from public view.
Unfortunately, the same study showed that 5% posted pictures of themselves in bathing suits or underwear. 15% of the profiles showed friends in bathing suits or underwear. The positive thing to take from this study is that a lot of kids are being safe and just because our kids are online, doesn’t mean that they are getting themselves into trouble or are being targeted by predators. The Internet gives our children access to many more people (and gives many more people access to our children), but most children are going to use the same logic and common sense they apply to the offline world and won’t become victims to predators.
To ensure your kids are safe online, use the tips we already gave you earlier in this guide. Always:
- Keep the lines of communication open
- Know who your children are spending time with
- Respect their privacy, with the guidelines we mentioned earlier
- Spend time with your children
If you think your children are spending too much time online, you can speak to them about it. Establish limits, with their input, and encourage other physical activities, spending time with friends and family members.
If you sense there truly is a problem and they may be involved in something dangerous, start a discussion about it. If you think you need to see what they’ve been doing online, go together. As mentioned earlier, snooping behind their back can just result in bigger problems.
P.S. If you want information on a good internet monitoring software that is easy to use, then check out the link below: http://www.parentingmyteen.com/pc_tattletale.HTML
June 1st, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I is so scary to see all the things that go on that our teens can get involved in on the internet. What great tips.
Tricia’s last blog post..Keeping Your Teen Save While Online
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
The software you pointed too isn’t the best you an get… But I digress, what makes you think “snooping” is bad? In fact, why call it snooping? There is a HUGE difference between “snooping” and “monitoring computer activity” – which EVERY parent should be doing. Parents have to take a step back and remember that their kids don’t know a world without the Internet. What we see as a tool, to them is a way of life. That has an extremely large impact on the value placed on the Internet and the whole “taking for granted” aspect. If kids are going to use this incredible technology to (virtually) travel the world, why aren’t parents being more proactive and forceful about knowing what their child is doing? When I was a kid and just went ‘cruising’ around town, my parent’s gave me the Spanish Inquisition. And that was just around town. They never said “Ok kid, go to it…have fun.” How can parents today just let their kids walk through that portal and not even care or bother to ask or know what their kids are doing? That would be the equivalent of letting them walk through Times Square at 3AM in the mid 1980s. Pure irresponsibility. It’s not snooping; it’s being a responsible well-informed 21st century parent. For help in obtaining that 100% knowledge, check out our PC Pandora monitoring software (www.pcpandora.com). Maybe not every parent needs the software to help – but parents MUST know and MUST be informed. They need to be parents. And doing whatever it takes is the bottom line. Giving a teen privacy just because they exist is stupid. Think of all the dumb stuff you did as a teen – and that was without the power of the Internet to booster the stupid decisions. And FYI, I had to EARN my parents trust and respect. You better damn well believe my kids are going to have to earn it from me!
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