Internet Dangers

Resources

  • The National Crime Prevention Council is a nonprofit organization that provides training and technical assistance to help families stay safe from Internet crimes.

  • Safe Kids, one of the oldest Internet safety sites, was established to help parents and teens learn safety tips for social networking.

  • I-SAFE, a nonprofit foundation, is the leader in Internet safety/cyberbullying education, providing programs/curricula for students and parents.

  • The Kentucky Center for School Safety is a state agency that provides funding to each school district in the Commonwealth for educating families about safe schools.

  • Many parents have a false sense of security regarding Internet use.

  • Chat rooms can be particularly dangerous for children.

  • Internet safety resources help parents protect children from becoming victims of crime.

  • Predators and criminals have used the Internet to find their victims.

  • Predators constantly visit chat rooms and assume a new name and age to hide their identity.

  • Internet safety programs often rely on education and empowerment to make technology a safer place for everyone.

  • No filtering program will protect your child from all the dangers on the Internet.

  • Responding to email ads confirms that you have a working account, which often results in more junk email.

  • Some software programs prohibit certain materials from being accessed from your computer.

  • Internet safety stresses the following theme: Keep your personal information private.

  • Internet safety analysts want parents to be aware, not scared.

  • Internet Safety Month is celebrated each June.

Effects on Youth

  • An alarming number of girls have reported that they’ve been sexually harassed in chat rooms.

  • Unprepared children are extremely vulnerable to online predators.

  • These predators seduce children by showering them with attention, affection, and kindness.

  • Opening spam email attachments could cause a computer to be infected with a virus.

  • Online “phishing” scams coerce children into revealing personal and confidential identity information.

Warning Signs

  • Your child turns the monitor off or changes the screen when you enter the room.

  • Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.

  • Your child is online a lot, especially at night.

  • Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from people you don’t know.

  • Your child has pornography on his or her computer.

  • Your child is making phone calls to numbers you don’t recognize.

  • Your child receives calls from strangers.

Prevention Information

What can you do?

  • Teach your child that saying or doing anything mean, hurtful, or vulgar is wrong.

  • Ensure your child never agrees to meet face-to-face with someone he or she has met online without your knowledge.

  • Tell your child never to respond to messages with bad words or weird or scary.

  • Remind your child never to send any pictures to anyone without your permission.

  • Monitor the pictures your child puts on the Internet.

  • Ensure that your child never gives out personal information (e.g., name, phone number, address).

  • Review all parental control features in the software your child uses.

  • First, educate yourself and then your child on Internet safety.

  • Know the dangers associated with the websites your child frequents.