Not sure what you need to know about social networking? How should your children handle a cyberbully? Can you recognize the signs of Internet addiction?
If you have questions like these, join iKeepSafe Parents. This moderated Yahoo! Group is for parents, grandparents, and guardians who are concerned about online child safety and safe usage of technology by young people.
Join the groupMany parents want to know the early warning signs of a preteen or young teens becoming engaged in a cybersexual relationship or their being groomed by an Internet sexual predator. While there are no hard and fast rules, these have proven to be helpful. Provide it to other parents, too. The more they know, the safer their kids will be.
* Does your child spend an inordinate amount of time online every day? More than 1-1/2 hours a day of "fun" (not homework) time online is the dividing line between children who tend to engage in high risk online activities, such as meeting strangers offline, engaging in cybersex, sharing personal information online, and sending photos of themselves to strangers.
* Do they have lots of offline friends, or are they loners? Generally children who have been lured by sexual predators online are loners and don't have a large circle of offline friends.
* Are they between the ages of 11 and 15 years of age? The exact age these risks begin is determined by when they are permitted to go places without accounting precisely for their time. This may include going to the mall, the park, or an amusement park unattended. Usually by the time they are 16 years old, they aren't as susceptible to being lured.
* Are they sheltered, or particularly risky in their behavior? The typical victim tends to fall into the extremes of this range of behavior. Either they are very sheltered and easy to con, when the predator will promise marriage and love ever after, generally in the guise of a cute teenage boy or girl. Or they will use the Internet to act out their risky behavior, which was the recent case with a Connecticut teenager.
* Do they have a relatively balanced life, with lots of activities offline, including sports, music, reading, etc.? Although not the case with the Connecticut girl, who was apparently active at her school and in sports, most children who keep the Internet in perspective and have other activities are less likely to be lured by an Internet predator.
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