Do You Know Where Your Child is Surfing on the Internet

I hear all the time about parents who let their kids use the internet without supervision. So many parents don't realize how dangerous the internet can be to young minds. Granted, the internet has a lot great information for all ages. The problem is the wrong information in the wrong hands has devastating effects. As a parent, it's your responsibility to keep your child safe on the internet. There is a lot of things you can do to safe guard your child on the internet.

Steps to keep your child safe on the internet:

1. Don't let your child close the door while on the internet.

2. Leave the computer in the main area of your home, if possible.

3. Check on your child frequently by going into the room. Supervised children are less likely to get in trouble.

4. Set up parental controls on the computer. Some internet providers and anti virus protection companies have free parental controls.

5. Check the history of your child's computer activity before they clean the cookies. On most browsers find history in the tool bar and click on "Show all History".

6. Talk to your child about which areas of the internet are okay to visit. I have my daughter tell where she's going to visit prior to using the computer and when she's on the computer. It may sound like over kill, but I remind my daughter I do all things out of love.

7. Talk to your child about the importance of not meeting someone they meet on the internet. Children are easy pray for predators on the internet. A predator can find a needy child a mile away.

8. I don't allow my daughter to talk directly to anyone on the internet. The only exception I have is when she's playing a game, she's allowed to type things such as- "wtg" for way to go, "gl" for good luck or her game score. Still, she's not allowed to chat directly to anyone.


9. If your child frequents a certain website, check the site out by visiting several pages within the same website. Sometimes once you dig into the website their pretty sketchy.

10. Always know all of your child's passwords. It's not an invasion of privacy; it's called being a parent.

11. Don't let your child download or sign up for any website without your permission.