Remember,
Internet safety is not something you can effectively impose on
anyone over the age of ten. If teens don't buy into your safety goals
they'll quickly find ways around them.
Effective
safety is something families must do together because everyone has a
vested interest in staying safe. Fortunately, kids have a basic sense
of self-preservation most of the time. They do not want to be ripped
off or abused by a scammer, thief, or predator. When they realize
their actions may place not only themselves, but their family members
or friends, at risk, they stop being resistant to using basic safety
measures.
Checklist
for family Internet safety
Buy
all the safety software
you need and use good filtering tools. Keep
them current and use them unfailingly, as automatically as locking
your door when you leave the house. Remember that antivirus and
anti-spyware software must be updated regularly to deal with new
threats and set up to run regular scans.
Discuss
online safety with your family and friends. Decide
together how you will help protect each other online and set rules
that reflect your personal and family values. Decide what activities
are okay, and what information it's okay to give out and to whom.
Consider using an Internet Safety Contract for
Families.
Be
selective about who you interact with online and what information
you make public.
The
risks are relatively low when you deal with people you know—your
family, and friends. Going into public chat rooms or making your
blog available to the general public, for example, significantly
increases your risk.
Think before you post online in a
public place (a place anyone on the Internet can see). Don’t
post any information that can personally
identify you,
a family member, or friend. Sensitive information includes birth
date, gender, town, e-mail address, school name, and photos. This
information can be used to help someone find you or steal your
identity.
Pay attention to the
risks of e-mail.
Think
twice before you open attachments or click links in e-mail-even if
you know the sender, as these can be used to transmit spam and
viruses to your computer.
Never respond to phishing
e-mail asking you to provide personal information, especially your
account number or password, even if the message seems to be from a
business you trust. Reputable businesses will not ask you for this
information.
If
you have younger children, put your family computer and
Internet-connected game consoles in a central location rather than a
private area.
Be
cautious about meeting someone you've met online in person. Have a
friend come with you and meet in a busy public place. Remember,
people online are not always who they say they are.
Review the features on your
children's mobile phones.
Can they download images from
the Internet, use instant messaging, or access services that allow
others to pinpoint their location? All of these features could be a
cause for concern, depending on your child’s maturity and the
situation.
Find out how and where to report
abuse.
Create an environment that
encourages your kids to report abuse to you. Acting as a responsible
Internet citizen can help stop the illegal activity, harassment, and
predatory behavior of online criminals.
Don’t trade personal
information for “freebies.” Just
as in the physical world, if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably is. Unwanted software, such as spyware
and viruses,
often piggybacks on software that’s “free.”
Check out the safeguards on computers
you or your child uses outside the home—at
school, the public library, and the homes of friends.
Choose
a safe online name. Use e-mail
addresses,
IM names, chat nicknames, and other such identifiers that don't give
away too much personal information. Pick a name that doesn't help
identify you (your age, for example) or locate you. Avoid
flirtatious or provocative names that may cause unwanted attention.
Sit
down with your family regularly to
review Internet contacts and activity. Check settings including
buddies, blogs, browser
history, image files, music downloads, and so on. Let kids know
you'll do this periodically. Explain that this is not to violate
their privacy, but to protect them and the family from risks.
Spend time
online with your children. Learn how to use the tools your kids are
using: blogs, e-mail, instant messaging, and so on. This is a great
opportunity to ask your kids to help you set up your own blog, get
started with instant messaging, play with searches, or teach you
whatever it is you don't yet know how to do.
Once
you've got a sense of how the tools and services work, evaluate them
for safety. For example, consider these questions:
Does
the service allow you to easily report abuse?
Does
the service provide clear instructions for how to be safe?
Is
there a range of options that let you make your information as
private as you like?
Internet safety contract for families
The
Internet is a public place and I am responsible for using it safely
to help protect myself, my family, and my friends.
I will only use safe contact names—in
e-mail, IM, blogs, etc.
I will never use the Internet to
bully or harass anyone.
I will not post content to a public
site without my parent's permission.
I will not expose my personal
information or the information of my friends or family (name,
address, phone or cell numbers, school) in text or through pictures.
I will never meet in person an
Internet "friend" without telling my parents and having
someone I trust with me.
It is my responsibility to browse
safely. I will not look for inappropriate content, and I will tell
my parents if I see something that upsets me.
I will only download programs from
the Internet that my parents have approved.
I will not register to use Web sites
or take surveys or quizzes that ask for personal information.
I know that information posted on the
Web can stay up there forever.
I will think about with whom I am
sharing information and be thoughtful about what is appropriate to
share.
hecklist
for family Internet safety
