Is the internet safe for children? If yes why and if no why?

Answer 1

The children are the ones that are not safe for the internet.

Answer 2

Children should be supervised when on the internet. You need to know what they are looking at and who they are communicating with. Tell your kids never to give any personal information out over the computer. Keep the computer in a "family" room, not a child's private bedroom. Limit use to hours when you will be home and be able to monitor what they are doing.

Answer 3

No the internet is not when they have full access. There are predators of all kinds out there and they are well hidden behind the computer screens. If you have a child you need to put safety measures in place to insure that your child is not been saught after by one of the predators or accessing sights that are highly inappropriate even for the adult eyes. You can get parental controls usually from your internet provider that will allow you to block things out and watch what sites your children are accessing and even limit who is able to email them and vice a versa. If your internet provider does not offer this then you should spend the money to purchase a program that can do these things. It is a big pain in the behind for us when we are on the internet because we have to accept all there IM people and those who we want to have access to our childs email. It also increases the problems you can have accessing sites yourself and you have to punch in more passwords but it is worth it for the sake of our children.

Instant Messenger is a little safer than chat rooms because you usually only IM people you actually know. Chat rooms are highly dangerous. The chatters are annonymous and that gives people a false sense of security that gives them the sense they can say anything without consequense. This can give a predator parading as a child the ability to get information that can help them locate your child physically. It doesn't take very much information to find what they want. First they look on the childs profile to get any information located there. State, first name, any sports or hobbies. Then they ask questions and over time they can pin point where your child is located. For instance if they say they don't have to worry about predators at there school because they live only a block away and the police station is right across the street. If they already know your state but not city they have just narrowed down the search to only schools close to the local police stations. Find out addresses to both and you have either found the school or narrowed the search by 95%. Then a week later they mention that there basketball team won their first game and type in "Go Tigers". A little research into the local schools will tell them which school your child attends. All they have to do is find out what types of activities your child attends and start their physical surveillence of the area. Why would they go through this trouble for a child they have never seen? Because they have an approximate time frame when the children are unsupervised just through how they chat on line when they are online. If the parent is watching over the shoulder they won't say as much or give any secrets that could get them in trouble. They mark down when they are online and the type of chating done. After awhile they get that on Wednesday's between 4-5 they have a tendency to tell about things at school they would definetly not want there parents to know but never do that at any other time. This tells them that mom and dad have other things they do at this time and it will be easy access to the child. They also already know that the child only lives a block away so they just have to sit and watch which children go into the house in a one block radius and they have narrowed the actual children down to 10% or so of the student body and know which house they live in to boot.

The internet is a wonderful world of information that should not be taken from children but they need to be supervised while on the internet. You should always know who they are talking to and how they are talking to them. Don't let your gaurd down just because your kid is a straight A student and doesn't get into trouble. They are usually the easiest targets because they can get away with more and already have their parents trust. Then they also want to fit in and will sometimes act out of character because of someone else's encouragement. Let them on to play on Disney and other kid sights but make sure you know that is what they are doing and keep them away from the chat rooms. Limit the things on their profile or give misleading information. I hope this has helped and scared people a little bit because that is truly necessary.

Answer 4

Family Contract for Online Safety

Here's something concrete parents can do: Call a "family meeting" and have a conversation on Internet safety. Below are two family contracts from Safekids.com— one for parents, and another for kids. Go over them together and use them as discussion points and guidelines on safe Web usage. Don't forget to sign the contract!

Parents' Pledge

1. I will get to know the services and web sites my child uses. If I don't know how to use them, I'll get my child to show me how.

2. I will set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer use by my children and will discuss these rules and post them near the computer as a reminder. I'll remember to monitor their compliance with these rules, especially when it comes to the amount of time they spend on the computer.

3. I will not overreact if my child tells me about a problem he or she is having on the Internet. Instead, we'll work together to try to solve the problem and prevent it from happening again.

4. I promise not to use a computer or the Internet as an electronic babysitter.

5. I will help make the Internet a family activity and ask my child to help plan family events using the Internet.

6. I will try to get to know my child's "online friends" just as I try get to know his or her other friends.

I agree to the above


___________________ ___________________
Parent(s) Sign Here

I understand that my parent(s) agreed to these rules and I will help my parent(s) explore the Internet with me.


___________________
Child Sign Here

Kids' pledge

1. I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parents’ work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parents’ permission.

2. I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.

3. I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public place and bring my mother or father along.

4. I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.

5. I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way make me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like that. If I do I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the service provider.

6. I will talk with my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online, and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access other areas or break these rules without their permission.

7. I will not give out my Internet password to anyone (even my best friends) other than my parents.

8. I will check with my parents before downloading or installing software or doing anything that could possibly hurt our computer or jeopardize my family’s privacy.

9. I will be a good online citizen and not do anything that hurts other people or is against the law.

10. I will help my parents understand how to have fun and learn things online and teach them things about the Internet, computers and other technology.

I agree to the above terms


______________________
Child Sign Here

I will help my child follow this agreement and will allow reasonable use of the Internet as long as these rules and other family rules are followed.

___________________ ___________________
Parent(s) Sign Here

Answer 5

No not for children unless the parent is right there watching because kids fall for bull crap lines easy and they have sick people in this world that prey on kids.

Answer 6

As long as it is done under the watch of parents. I allow my daughter to play on-line but only on sites I approve and I am always in the room with her while she is on-line. Sites she allowed to visit are pbskids, disney, etc.

Answer 7

It can. Get NetNanny or something like that.
Don't forget a firewall because they will download just about anything.
And definitely a virus program.
Then, they can browse.

Answer 8

It depends. The sites they visit should be monitored and parental controls should be installed on the computer.

Answer 9

generally; no.

but there are filters, blockers, ect. to block things that aren't for children. and there are now a lot of websites that are aimed torwards families/kids. (neopets.com, postopia.com, nick.com, ect.)

Answer 10

yes if the proper saftey settings are applied