Cyber Safety For Kids Can Stop Predators In Their Tracks
Did you ever watch that NBC Dateline series called €To Catch A Predator?
Perhaps for the first time, viewers were able to witness a steady stream of predators showing up to a house outfitted with hidden cameras to meet a 12-year-old girl who indicated in an online chatroom that she was open to the idea of having sex.
The teenager was a decoy volunteer but nonetheless, it could just have easily been a real kid. An €innocent hello€ from a predator to a kid online, could over time, devolve into a serious crime against that kid and possibly murder. It this fact that makes cyber safety for kids such an important matter.
Net Predators Are A Threat
The following statistics make frightening reading:
* One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
- Crimes Against Children Research Center
* 25% of children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material online.
- Crimes Against Children Research Center
* Only 1/3 of households with Internet access are actively protecting their children with filtering or blocking software.
- Center for Missing and Exploited Children
And perhaps the most frightening statistic is that by law-enforcement officials on the NBC Dateline program who estimate that are around 50,000 predators online at any given time.
What Can Parents Do
Parents might feel helpless to control their kids' internet activity either because they don't have the technical know-how to do so or they expect someone else to police the sites their kids visit. However, the issue of cyber safety for kids falls primarily at the feet of parents.
If you're a parent or guardian, familiarize yourself on some of the technical methods that can be used to restrict your kids' net activity. A site such a SafeKids.com is an invaluable resource.
In the meantime, here are some proactive steps that you can take to make net surfing safer for kids.
1. Educate your kids on the dangers that lurk online. Open their eyes to the fact that there are predators online who will pretend to be persons they're not in order to hurt or take advantage of unsuspecting victims. If they're old enough, don't be afraid to talk to them about actual cases of kids being hurt in this way.
2. Let your kids know that you are understanding of their desire to communicate with their friends online and that they should feel comfortable in reporting any suspicious behavior by an online friend.
3. Consider having a central computer for your kids to use rather than having the computer in their room. In this way, you can more closely monitor what your kids are doing online.
4. Consider getting an internet safety suite for children such as Net Nanny. This application has tons of features such as content filtering, image blocking, net time restriction, online activity alerts, social media and instant messaging monitoring.
Some kids are very computer savvy and can get around around internet safety measures that parents put in place. But Net Nanny has a sterling reputation for keeping out even the most tech savvy of kids.
Net Nanny is very inexpensive but you can take it for a free trial spin to see if it suits your needs.
What About Cell Phone Monitoring
The wide use of cell phones provides another avenue for nefarious characters to lure unsuspecting children into their trap. Cell phones not only provide an opportunity for predators to talk with children in private but also offer children the capability of surfing the net and opening themselves up to potentially harmful influences.
Thankfully, there are cell spy software available to help you legally and inexpensively monitor the cell phone activity of your children.
The best cell spy software will have features such as: browser history monitoring, call listening, call tracking, environment listening, GPS tracking, remote phone control, SMS tracking (text messages), WhatsApp and iMessenger tracking.
These spy applications are compatible with a large variety of mobile devices and are also very inexpensive. On top of this, these applications are simple to install, so you can be up and running quickly.
Perhaps for the first time, viewers were able to witness a steady stream of predators showing up to a house outfitted with hidden cameras to meet a 12-year-old girl who indicated in an online chatroom that she was open to the idea of having sex.
The teenager was a decoy volunteer but nonetheless, it could just have easily been a real kid. An €innocent hello€ from a predator to a kid online, could over time, devolve into a serious crime against that kid and possibly murder. It this fact that makes cyber safety for kids such an important matter.
Net Predators Are A Threat
The following statistics make frightening reading:
* One in five U.S. teenagers who regularly log on to the internet say they have received an unwanted sexual solicitation via the Web. Solicitations were defined as requests to engage in sexual activities or sexual talk, or to give personal sexual information.
- Crimes Against Children Research Center
* 25% of children have been exposed to unwanted pornographic material online.
- Crimes Against Children Research Center
* Only 1/3 of households with Internet access are actively protecting their children with filtering or blocking software.
- Center for Missing and Exploited Children
And perhaps the most frightening statistic is that by law-enforcement officials on the NBC Dateline program who estimate that are around 50,000 predators online at any given time.
What Can Parents Do
Parents might feel helpless to control their kids' internet activity either because they don't have the technical know-how to do so or they expect someone else to police the sites their kids visit. However, the issue of cyber safety for kids falls primarily at the feet of parents.
If you're a parent or guardian, familiarize yourself on some of the technical methods that can be used to restrict your kids' net activity. A site such a SafeKids.com is an invaluable resource.
In the meantime, here are some proactive steps that you can take to make net surfing safer for kids.
1. Educate your kids on the dangers that lurk online. Open their eyes to the fact that there are predators online who will pretend to be persons they're not in order to hurt or take advantage of unsuspecting victims. If they're old enough, don't be afraid to talk to them about actual cases of kids being hurt in this way.
2. Let your kids know that you are understanding of their desire to communicate with their friends online and that they should feel comfortable in reporting any suspicious behavior by an online friend.
3. Consider having a central computer for your kids to use rather than having the computer in their room. In this way, you can more closely monitor what your kids are doing online.
4. Consider getting an internet safety suite for children such as Net Nanny. This application has tons of features such as content filtering, image blocking, net time restriction, online activity alerts, social media and instant messaging monitoring.
Some kids are very computer savvy and can get around around internet safety measures that parents put in place. But Net Nanny has a sterling reputation for keeping out even the most tech savvy of kids.
Net Nanny is very inexpensive but you can take it for a free trial spin to see if it suits your needs.
What About Cell Phone Monitoring
The wide use of cell phones provides another avenue for nefarious characters to lure unsuspecting children into their trap. Cell phones not only provide an opportunity for predators to talk with children in private but also offer children the capability of surfing the net and opening themselves up to potentially harmful influences.
Thankfully, there are cell spy software available to help you legally and inexpensively monitor the cell phone activity of your children.
The best cell spy software will have features such as: browser history monitoring, call listening, call tracking, environment listening, GPS tracking, remote phone control, SMS tracking (text messages), WhatsApp and iMessenger tracking.
These spy applications are compatible with a large variety of mobile devices and are also very inexpensive. On top of this, these applications are simple to install, so you can be up and running quickly.