Top 10 Tips for Keeping Your Family Safe (and Happy!) Online
The Internet is now a part of family life. There are thousands of fun games and learning activities for young children and new ways for families to socialize online. The challenge for parents is finding Web sites that promote safe Internet surfing and staying involved with their kids’ online experience. The 10 tips below will ensure a safe (and happy!) Web experience for your entire family. 1. Communicate with your children before they start accessing the Internet. Before you open your child up to the fun and educational activities on the Internet, discuss appropriate behavior with them. Explain that even though the Internet is accessed through the computer, all the “real world” lessons that you’ve taught them—like “Don’t talk to strangers” – still apply. Review with them in detail what is appropriate conduct on their part, appropriate content for them to view and appropriate contacts they should interact with… and those that they should not. 2. Surf With Glubble. Sign-up for a free, safe online family activity center, like Glubble (http://Glubble.com), that lets you supervise the Web sites your children can visit and which games are appropriate for them, as well as allowing with whom they can chat online. Glubble is free and turns surfing and playing on the Internet into an activity that is fun for the entire family, and always safe for kids. With Glubble, parents with children under 12 can create online “play spaces” for each child featuring Web sites, online games, coloring pages and educational exercises. 3. Play on the Internet with your kids. Just like picking the books you read to your children and the TV shows the family watches, stay involved with your children’s Internet experience. When they are first learning how to use the computer to play on the Internet, play along with them…and then regularly join them to find new game sites, audio books and educational exercises that are appropriate. 4. Choose with whom your kids can interact with online. Teach your children that the Internet is a place to enhance existing relationships, not a place to forge new ones – for now. A child-safe online activity center like Glubble permits parents to add family members and friends that your children can chat and play with (however, open chat rooms and other programs will not give parents this level of supervision). Explain to your children that they should only be chatting and playing with existing friends and family members rather than strangers. …/
page 2 – Top 10 Tips 5. Locate the family computer in an open area in your home. Place the computer that your children use to access the Internet in an open area in your home (e.g. the family room or kitchen table) to ensure that playing on the Web does not become a private activity and lets you can check what they’re doing at any given time. 6. Approve all files your child wants to upload to the Internet—and keep files secure. Once a file is uploaded to the Internet, it’s there forever. Tell your children that they must ask you for permission before uploading any files, such as photos. And use sites that ensure your photos can only be viewed by people -- like family and friends -- which you’ve first approved and given access. 7. Keep current on the latest technologies. Keep current on the latest technologies so that you know and understand what the latest technologies— like social networking sites, blogs and online video-sharing sites—do and can assess how safe they are for your kids. 8. Gradually let your kids try new programs and Web sites that you have approved. Kids love to discover new programs and Web sites that expand their knowledge and keep them interested—after all, their learning curves grow along with them. Glubble lets you add Web sites that are safe and valuable for children and notifies you when they try to access unapproved Web sites. 9. Keep passwords and all personal information private. Teach your child to never give out any passwords or private information (including name, location and age). 10. Stay involved. Just as you’re involved with your children’s schoolwork and extra-curricular activities, stay involved with their Internet usage. Ask questions about what games they’re playing and websites they’re learning from and enjoying. As with any other activity that you discuss at the dinner table, so too with the Internet!
###