Monday, December 19, 2005

 

Online Safety Tips for Parents!

Hello, Parents!

The following online safety tips are submitted for your convenience, courtesy of TechMission. Thanks for your support in the education of your students!

Safety Tips for Parents

How to keep your family safe online

1) PUBLISH
Post simple, clear and age-appropriate internet usage rules near the home computer; be sure to review these rules with each child and have each child sign it. (See sample rules) If you feel it is necessary, you can adjust specific rules based on the age of each child. (Sample pledges for varying age groups). Outline specific consequences for failure to abide by the rules.

2) PLACEMENT
Keep the computer in the family room or another open area of your home; place the screen in open view. A child online in a private room or with a laptop is very risky.

3) PRE-EMPT
Install an internet filter. (info on software tools). Filter settings and internet account set up should be in the parents’ or guardians’ names only. Children should not know your passwords.

4) PRIVACY
Instruct your children not to share their personal information (name, school, address, phone number, passwords). Have children choose screen names that give no clues of a child’s gender, age, location, or other identifying information. Without question, screen names should not be suggestive or racy. Do not allow your children to post their pictures online in profiles, blogs or other public forums.

5) PERSONAL CONTACT
Make sure your children understand that they should never arrange to physically meet with someone they “met” online. The same applies for telephone calls. If they are asked to meet with someone, to give personal information (like address or phone number), or to set up a phone conversation, train them to notify you immediately.

6) PARTIPICATE
Surf with your children. Learn how they use the web and other resources. Let them show off, while you become more aware of their activities. Talk with them regularly about their online experiences. Get to know the friends they E-mail or chat with.

7) PRIORITIES
Set time limits online. Make sure they are not neglecting other activities.

8) PARAMETERS
Set content boundaries and guidelines.

a. Have your children get used to searching with child-friendly engines for homework and other online queries. Set one of them as the computer’s home page. Here are five examples:

Ask Jeeves for Kids
Yahooligans (www.yahooligans.com)
OneKey (www.onekey.com)
Kids Click (www.kidsclick.org)
Education World

b. Only allow child-friendly, monitored chat rooms, or make chat rooms off-limits. You and your family should keep in mind that predators will use chat rooms to find potential victims, often misrepresenting their age and sex.

c. Think carefully about allowing peer-to-peer (file sharing) programs such as Kazaa or LimeWire. A significant percentage of the content available to download on such programs is illegal, immoral, unsavory, potentially damaging to your computer, and not easily monitored; you could be held responsible for misuse.

d. Teach children not to respond to an email or instant message from a stranger.

9) PROTECT
Train your children to tell you of any communication they receive that is threatening, uncomfortable, probing, harassing or inappropriate (whether from a stranger or someone they know such as a classmate). If warranted, keep and forward such communication to your ISP or local authorities. Do not respond yourself. If you suspect stalking or sexual solicitation may be occurring, contact the CyberTipline®.

10) PROBLEMS
Review with your children that they should tell you of any experience online that makes them comfortable. This includes unintentional exposure to pornography or other troubling content. They should know that they will not “get into trouble” for reporting such experiences.

Comments:
the school is awesome but i am not going to be here next year. i am going to bartlett. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!
 
Good pictures M.r Prince.
 
cool pix
 
cool pics mr.prince. you should get more of them!
 
The pictures were good
 
nice geobread houses
 
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