The internet is a vast, sometimes intimidating place. If your child is not "online" already, he or she may soon be joining the 15 million children who are using the Internet.

Fortunately, the online world can offer children experiences that are educational and rewarding. In addition, being able to use the Internet effectively may increase a child's school performance and future job potential.

However, this new medium also can present some very unsafe situations. Just as you would not allow your child to wander alone into unknown territory, you also would not want him or her to interact on the Internet without some parental guidance and supervision.

The Basics
Learn everything you can about the Internet
If you are just starting out, see what your local library, community center, church, school or newspaper offers by way of introduction.


Get Involved!
Spend time online with your child, whether at home, at the library, or at a computer center in your community. Your involvement in your child's life, including his or her online life, is the best insurance you can have of your child's safety.


Be Empowered - Stay Informed
Keep yourself informed about the parental control tools that can help you keep your child safe online. This brochure includes an introduction to what currently available tools can and cannot do.

Email - Sending & receiving electronic messages

Positive Benefits for Your Child

Keep in touch with teachers, family, friends

Get help with homework

Establish mentoring relationships

Practice writing

Receive online newsletters

Make world-wide pen pals

Dangers/Risks

Strangers, at times pretending to be someone else, can communicate with your child


Unsolicited email ("spam"), usually about sites with sexually explicit material, products for sale, or moneymaking schemes

Parenting Tips

Know your child's email account and password


Talk with your child about the people he or she is meeting online


Set a rule that your child never arranges an in-person meeting without you present.


Complain to the sender of unsolicited email and to your Internet Service Provider (ISP) about unwanted email

What Parental Control Tools Can Do

Route your child's email first to your account


Reject email from specific email addresses


Limit email with offensive language and personal information from being sent and received


Browsing the World Wide Web

Exploring information on world-wide computer networks, usually by using a browser such as Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer

Positive Benefits for Your Child

Access rich educational and cultural resources (text, sounds, pictures, and video) otherwise unavailable to most people


Obtain up-to-the-minute information


Improve ability to understand and evaluate information


Stay informed by accessing your community and school Web sites


Play fun and educational games


Learn educational skills useful in future jobs

Dangers/Risks

Easy-to-find sites with violent and sexually explicit images and text


Easy-to-find sites promoting hatred, bigotry, violence, drugs, cults, and other things not appropriate for children


Inaccurate, misleading, and untrue information


No restrictions on marketing products such as alcohol and tobacco to children


Marketing that deceptively collects personal information from kids in order to sell products to them or their parents


Requests for personal information for contests, surveys, etc., that are used in unauthorized ways


Easy access to games with excessive violence and sexually explicit content

Parenting Tips

Keep computer in family area to better monitor your child's activity


Regularly spend quality time online with your child to learn about his or her interests and activities online


Teach your child to end any experience online when he or she feels uncomfortable or scared by pressing the back key, logging off, and telling a trusted adult as soon as possible


Establish an atmosphere of trust and understanding with your child by not blaming him or her for uncomfortable online experiences


Discuss the difference between advertising and educational or entertaining content and show your child examples of each


Establish strict rules for ordering products (and then monitor credit card bills)


"Talk back" to Internet Service Providers and content creators to let them know what you want and expect from them in keeping kids safe online

What Parental Control Can Do

Block access to materials (text and pictures) identified as inappropriate for kids*


Permit access only to materials specifically approved as safe for kids*


Allow you to specify what types of materials are appropriate for your child


Help you monitor your child's activity on the Internet by storing names of sites and/or snapshots of material seen by your child on the computer for you to view later


Allow you to set different restrictions for each family member


Limit results of an Internet search to content appropriate for kids


Enforce time limits set by parents

* Each control tool determines whether materials are "inappropriate" or "safe for kids" differently. Make sure you ask what criteria the tool uses and how the evaluation process works; then check out the tool yourself.


Chatting

Reading messages from others as they are typing them, usually in the theme-specific "chat rooms"

Positive Benefits for Your Child

Develop relationships with children and adults around the world


Talk to kids and teens with similar interests and concerns, in rooms specifically for kids that are monitored closely by adults


Communicate instantaneously with family, friends, teachers, church leaders, etc.

Dangers/Risks

Offensive language and adult conversation


Because of its interactive nature, the most likely activity online through which children will encounter people who want to harm them


Too much time online which limits a child's well-rounded development by taking the place of friends, schoolwork, sports and other activities

Parenting Tips

Accompany your child in chat rooms until he or she learns your safety rules


Teach your child never to give out personal information such as his or her name or address, school name or address, or anything else that is personally identifying


Explain that people are not always who they say they are


Set a rule that your child never arranges an in-person meeting without you present


Limit your child to specific chat rooms or consider blocking out chat entirely

What Parental Control Tools Can Do

Allow access only to monitored chat rooms or block access to all chat rooms


Block private messages between a child and another user


Limit your child's ability to give out personal information

NOTE: Other activities on the Internet, including newsgroups, bulletin boards, and lists, have benefits and risks comparable to those listed above. You should exercise similar cautions with your child in these arenas.


Parental Control Tools

What Can Parental Control Tools Do?
Every tool includes some of the features listed inside this brochure. Decide which features are best for your family, and ask your ISP or local store which product/service meets your needs.

What Can They Not Do?
No parental control tool is 100% reliable. Not only do tools inadvertently allow access to some inappropriate material and block access to some valuable information, but savvy children may be able to get around the controls.