This is something I wrote about last year but was lost when I converted to WordPress. I figured it would be good to revise/rewrite it now.

Now that school is out, what are your kids doing online? Summer months are always a time that is exciting for us and also poses some challenges. The school year brings a natural structure to the day and activities that surround it such as soccer, baseball, art club, music, etc.

I like to provide my kids as much freedom as possible on the computer and the Internet that is age appropriate. Of course “policing” this is a challenge. There are filtering and monitoring applications that are available, however just like in corporations you need to lay down your house rules (corporate policy) before you select and/or implement “parenting software.”

All of my kids are under 12, so our method is to keep the computers within sight at all times. The shared laptop is kept near the kitchen and is always used with one of us around to know what sites they are visiting or what applications they are running. We do use the built in Parental Controls on the laptop where we white list web sites as they need them and I utilize some of the rudimentary filtering in OpenDNS.  Again, part of the problem with software or services that do this is that if your kids want to find away around it they will.  This is why we keep the computer within sight.

How about when they go to their friends’ homes?

Good question. We will ask our kids to tell us where the computer is in their friends’ homes and if the computer is out of sight such as in a play room that’s in the basement or in their bedroom, then they cannot use it. I trust my kids and all I can do is hope that they do the right things.  In the past, my kids have walked out of their friend’s rooms or done something else.  The only way I know is that the other kid’s parent has told me.  So, so far so good.

The other part is of course educating your children on issues related to privacy, proper use of social networks (if at all), and online safety. My guess is that most of you who are tech savvy probably end up doing this for all of the children in your family. The “virtual” world is anything but that. The Internet, social networks, chat rooms are all part of the real world and encouraging that brings the point home. Although I was negative early on on social networks for younger kids, sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin have allowed us to ease into social networking with a safer environment and teach our kids how to interact with people they know and those they don’t know online. Our hope is that carries into more “mature” social networks. Review your kid’s social network profiles, preferably with them there.

There are a lot of great resources online regarding online safety

Here are a few:

• http://www.netsmartz.org - From the Center for Missing and Exploited Children
• http://www.cyberangels.org - From the Guardian Angels
• http://www.fbi.gov/publications/pguide/pguidee.htm- FBI Parent’s Guide
• http://www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy/ - FTC Kidz Privacy site

Know where they are going and what they are doing, whether its online or not.  Good parenting in the online world is just good parenting. At the end of the day, the best thing you can do is to talk with your kids.

What do you do with your own kids?

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