Cyber-Safety Tips For Your Kids

by Dr. David Walsh

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, a time when federal, state and local governments join computer companies and other groups to educated the public about how to stay safe online. This year, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), whose sponsors include the Department of Homeland Security, has called on schools to teach Internet safety to students. The NSCA web site (staysafeonline.org) offers a helpful list of the "Top 8 Cyber Security Practices." These tips focus on helping visitors to the site protect their important financial and personal information.

I think it's a good sign that our government and industry groups are taking our online security seriously. Identity theft can be a devastating problem, and homeland security will only work when we're all involved. But for kids, online safety is more often a matter of avoiding sexual predators, inappropriately mature content, and addictive behaviors. Most children and teens don't have credit card numbers to guard. Instead, kids need to be taught to protect their developing brains and innocent lives.

Security, for kids, means being allowed to grow up healthy and happy. With that kind of security in mind, please consider the following tips for avoiding some of the Internet's potential perils:

Internet and Video Game Addiction

Online addiction can be a huge problem for kids. Your child or teen may be addicted if he or she spends most non-school hours playing games, throw temper tantrums when family rules for time limits are imposed, and doesn't keep up in school anymore.

To help your kid avoid Internet addiction:

Set clear ground rules about when, where, how much, and what kind of game playing is allowed.

Limit game playing time.

Require that homework and other chores be completed first.

Keep video and computer games out of kids' bedrooms.

Pornography and other Adult Content

Unfortunately, the web is a hotbed of exactly the kind of material we want to keep away from young eyes. Here are some tips for keeping our kids on safe sites:

Install an Internet filter and learn how to use it to make adult sites off limits to your children.

Make and enforce rules about the sites kids can and can't visit.

Talk to your kids about why it's important to your own family values to stay on kid-safe sites.

Cyberbullying

Young people need to be taught that proper etiquette extends into the virtual world. Make sure your kids know: The importance of proper electronic etiquette That if they are the victims or know of someone who is cyberbullying, they should tell an adult right away That parents are paying attention to Internet communication and that there will be consequences for cyberbullying.

Protection from Predators Every year thousands of kids are duped by predatory adults into meeting them in person. Try starting with these rules: Computers stay in a public area of your home. People on the Internet are strangers. Never give out personal information. Never meet anyone in real life without a parent's knowledge and approval.

David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute on Media and the Family (www.mediawise.org). His latest book, No: Why Kids – of All Ages – Need to Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It (Free Press) is available in bookstores.