Keeping Kids Safe on the Internet

                As with the real world, the Internet has its dark side and it’s all too easy for kids to stray into it. So I decided to write about an article from parenting.com which covers many different ways that parents can help keep their kids safe while using the Internet. There are a lot of different ways parents can be more involved such as actually stepping into their child’s cyberworld. This enables parents to be more involved and know a lot of details about their child. Another big one covered in the article is to teach them to protect their privacy. Obviously, you have to teach them the basics such as never to give their name, phone number, email address, passwords, and etc. Just by teaching kids this basic step, it keeps them much safer. Other different ways to keep kids safe as mentioned in the article are set house rules, know that location is key, make your browser work double-time, tune up your search engine, and stay in a kid-friendly zone.

                I chose this article because during class we discussed the different ways to keep kids safe while online. Kids not being safe on the internet became a big parental issue. Parents essentially want to keep their kids safe, but at the same time do not want to over step their boundaries on their children’s life. There has been a big debate between what is too much and what is too little to be done when it comes to safety. According to a study, 77% of parents report monitoring their child’s online activity. The fact that this number is that high kind of surprises me especially when you hear about all of online hackers, stalkers, and creep stories. I believe this number needs to increase in order for kids to be the safest they can be while online. However, the debate between what is too much comes into play when parents are monitoring their children. All parents want their kids to be safe, but they do not want to invade their kid’s privacy.

                I also chose this article because I know of one of my friends getting into trouble while online. Back when I was in 8^th grade a lot of my friends and I used to use different sites such as Chat Roulette and Skype. We were young and thought that this kind of technology was fascinating so we had to use it. Well, while on Chat Roulette one night, my friend that’s a girl, met this guy and they talked for a little and they became friends on Facebook. As the days had gone on the messaged back and forth repeatedly while she shared some personal information to him. After a few days went by she began noticing something wrong with the computer and different things kept happening. It turns out this guy she had been talking to was a hacker. He had hacked in and got very personal information such as her social security number and numerous passwords she had. This is just a prime example of how kids can be in danger online. I personally believe knowing her family that the parents definitely did not do enough to protect her while online. These days anything can happen online which is why parents need to take drastic measures to ensure their kids safety while online.