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Teen
Safety on the Information Highway
Guidelines
for Parents
Be reasonable and set reasonable expectations. Try
to understand their needs, interests, and curiosity.
Remember what it was like when you were their age.
If they tell you about someone or something they
encountered, your first response should not be to blame them or
take away their Internet privileges. Work with them to help them
avoid problems in the future, and remember – how you respond
will determine whether they confide in you the next time they
encounter a problem and how they learn to deal with problems on
their own.
Ask your teen to show you what's cool. Have them
show you great places for teens and fill you in on areas that
you might benefit from as well. Make “surfing the net” a
family experience. Use it to plan a vacation, pick out a movie,
or check out other family activities. This may be one area where
you get to be the student and your kid gets to be the teacher.
As you may know,
there are now services that rate web sites for content as well
as filtering programs and browsers that empower parents to block
the types of sites they consider to be inappropriate. These
programs work in different ways. Some block sites known to
contain objectionable material. Some prevent users from entering
certain types of information such as their name and address.
Other programs keep your kids away from chat rooms or restrict
their ability to send or read E-mail. Generally these
programs can be configured by the parent to block only the types
of sites that the parent considers to be objectionable.
Whether or not it
is appropriate to use one of these programs is a personal
decision. If you do use such a program, you'll probably need to
explain to your teen why you feel it is necessary. You should
also be careful to choose a program whose criteria reflects your
family's values. Be sure to configure it so that it doesn't
block sites that you want your teen to be able to visit.
It is important
to realize that filtering programs cannot protect your child
from all dangers in cyberspace. To begin with, no program can
possibly block out every inappropriate site. What's more, it’s
possible, in some cases, for the programs to block sites that
are appropriate. If you use a filtering program, you should
re-evaluate it periodically to make sure it's working for your
family.
Regardless of
whether you use a filtering program, you should still be sure
that your teen follows all of the basic rules listed in this
brochure. Filtering programs are not a substitute for good
judgment or critical thinking. With or without filters,
kids and their parents need to be “net savvy.”
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