What Parents Can Do To Help Their Children Stay Safe on the Internet By FRANK J. DUTKO, Ph.D. Director, Futurekids Computer Learning Center

Frank J. Dutko

We've all heard the stories, and we all shudder at them.

Teenagers meet in person a penpal they met online, and the fellow "teenager" turns out to be a forty year old man.

So should we stop our children from having any online access? A relevant analogy is: "Should we stop our children from riding in a car just because accidents sometimes happen?"

No, there is too much great information online to deny them access.

In addition, the horror stories have been relatively rare, and we can all be thankful for that.

We, as parents, must take the responsibility for ensuring our children's safety on the Internet.

There are many things we can, and should, do:

Consider moving the computer from the child's bedroom or the study to a more central location, like the family room. In this way, a parent can glance at the monitor every once in a while, and see what the child is doing.

Establish open communication with your children about online activities. Have them show you what services they use online. Make sure that your children feel comfortable in telling you about a site or a message that makes them feel uncomfortable.

There are controls that parents can set up on most of the commercial online services as well as on the Web browsers. In this way, parents can limit their children's access to chat rooms which may have adult content.

Make sure that your children never give out personal information (such as name, address, telephone number, or name of their school) in e-mails or chat rooms. Larry Magid has a set of rules and guidelines for computer use by children. These rules should be discussed with children and posted near the computer.

There are several filtering programs that can let parents have the ability to prevent children from reaching sites that are inappropriate. Cyber Patrol , InterGo , and Specs for Kids received good reviews in Internet World, September, 1996. Also mentioned were Net Nanny , Net Shepherd , Cybersitter , SafeSurf and SurfWatch . Parents should know that none of these programs are perfect. Programs that block sites will also block sites that are not rated or that are new. Programs that let you access only approved sites will not let you access new sites that have not yet been approved.

Take a detailed look at the phone bill for the computer modem. If there are any strange numbers on this bill, these may be for bulletin board systems that may be inappropriate for children.

In conclusion, parents need to realize that they have a responsibility to teach their children how to talk to strangers online. The Internet is a vast universe of information which can greatly improve one's life or can harm it.

For more information on Online Safety Basics and a Parent/Child Agreement, see the SafeSurf site. To see the article by Lawrence J. Magid entitled "Child Safety on the Information Highway", click on Larry's World .

Frank J. Dutko, Ph.D., is the Director and Owner of Futurekids Computer Learning Center, located in the Village Square Shopping Center, 217 Clarksville Rd., Lawrenceville, NJ 08648, (609) 897-9595. Futurekids teaches adults and children to be masters of the computer.