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Home › Articles › Safety Behaviors › Friends, Fun and Fads

Friends, Fun and Fads

Staying Internet Savvy

By Kelly Burgess

Pages:  1  2  3  

Dempsey's a mom who's always paid attention to her kids. They have family dinners most nights, and she's always monitored who her kids are with and where they are. They also have rules for computer use: doors open, computer turned off after 10 p.m. and no secretive behavior.

That's what Magid recommends as the best defense against online predators and other misuses of the Internet by teens: Be a close family. "Have conversations, and give kids a lot of control over the conversation," he says. "Listen carefully to what they're interested in, and don't be afraid to question them. Then go look it up and learn about their technology."

Beyond that, be informed, say both Magid and Collier. Know what the trends are by keeping up through sites such as BlogSafety.com and SafeKids.com. If you suspect that your child is engaging in behavior that may be harmful to him or her, such as making arrangements to meet strangers or visiting anorexia sites on the Web, don't be afraid to snoop. This is not the ideal first approach, but keeping your kids safe is your ultimate goal.

For younger children, filters are appropriate, but they don't generally work well for teens. This is partly because teens have so many other ways to go online besides the home computer, and partly because by the time they're teenagers they're usually savvy enough to figure out how to get around most filtering devices.

"Ultimately it is the kids that have to protect themselves," says Magid. "When you're 16, you are in charge of your own [body] and have to take responsibility just as you do for sex and driving and all those other things teens begin to do. The only filter that really works is the one that runs between their ears."

Internet Filtering for Families

Internet filtering devices may not be a realistic option by the time a child is 16 or 17, but when a child is a preteen or in the early teens, they can be helpful for families who are just establishing their Internet boundaries. One product, by Blue Coat Systems, Inc., is K9 Web Protection, a free Web filter that gives parents control over their family's use of the Internet.

John Carosella, a parent of three teens and project leader for K9, says this product can block more than 55 different categories of content, including pornography, hate speech and sites that promote violence or permit gambling. Best of all, says Carosella, it's more user-friendly than most Web filters and doesn't interfere with legitimate applications such as homework and research.

"The false positive problem has been a real issue for Web filters, and it's becoming as critical to get it right in the home as it has always been in the corporate environment," Carosella says. "Parents don't want to have to be technical experts; they want products that just work."

However, Carosella does acknowledge that Web filtering is not the complete answer. "Parenting has changed completely for us," Carosella says. "We're the first generation of Internet parents, and it's a very complex world out there. But we can't give up on our kids or give up on the Internet. The trick is to educate ourselves, know what our kids are up to, and help them find a balance between the online world and the real world."


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Re: Friends, Fun and Fads by LFabris on 10/29/2009 12:25PM

I use Facebook all the time and came across this list of apps that are actually useful (not games!). Thought I'd share with you: http://www.lawfirms.com/facebook-sex-offender-apps.html

Re: Friends, Fun and Fads by Archana Shekar on 11/13/2008 05:39AM

Nice article. Very informative too. A lot of information is gathered and presented to us, so thank for such an informative article.

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