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<span class="sub-title">
Online chat spaces create significant
safety concerns for parents</span><br />
by Victoria Pericon<br />
</p>
<p>
Every year, 1 in 5 children between the
ages of 10 and 17 receive a sexual solicitation or approach over the
Internet.  With millions of children in chat rooms, parents must take
action to protect their children from these online predators. One
problem is that many children are far more computer savvy than their
parents.
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Katie Kimple, Senior Director of YNet
(<a href="http://www.bgcayouthnet.org/">www.bgcayouthnet.org</a>),
a secure, public site developed by Boys &amp; Girls Clubs of America,
aims to help youth across the nation safely share information and
learn to navigate the Internet while gaining basic skills in the
areas of technology and education. According to Kimple, a recent
survey revealed some startling statistics about how parents are
supervising their children&#39;s online time. Kimple discovered &ldquo;more
than half of young people say their parents never ask them about whom
they are talking to on the Internet and 55 percent say their parents
never surf the Internet with them.&rdquo;
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Dr. Andy McGarrahan, child psychologist
at Children&#39;s Medical Center Dallas declares &ldquo;Parents need to find
out more about these websites to learn what can and can&#39;t be done on
them.&rdquo;  Trudy W. Schuett teaches blogging
(<a href="http://q22.blog-city.com/">http://q22.blog-city.com</a>)
and has noticed that a lot of younger users tend to feel too secure
online. &ldquo;It&#39;s as if they don&#39;t recognize how very public these
websites are, and think only their friends or people they know will
be viewing their material.&rdquo;
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Robert Siciliano, author of &quot;The
Safety Minute : 01&rdquo;, suggests parents become fully informed. &ldquo;Go
online to Google and search &lsquo;children security online&rsquo; and read
everything that comes up. Purchase and install software that gives
you screenshots of your child&#39;s activities,&rdquo; says Siciliano.
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Siciliano also suggests having a
discussion with your children once you are fully educated. He also
points out that a computer in a child&#39;s bedroom is &ldquo;like locking
your kid in a room with a pervert. The computers monitor should be
seen by the parent at all times.&rdquo;
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<p>
Vicki Courtney, who conducts Internet
safety workshops for parents and tackles the issue of safely surfing
the Internet in her latest book, &quot;Your Boy&quot; (Broadman &amp;
Holman, April 2006), agrees with Siciliano. &ldquo;Keep the computer your
kids use in a central location of the home, preferably in a room that
gets passed through fairly often. The kitchen and living room are
good choices.&rdquo;
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Courtney also suggests installing a
filter on all your home computers. While there are plenty of filters
available, she uses Safe Eyes which is available for less than $50
and was recently ranked the #1 filter by Consumer Reports. &ldquo;You
decide which categories you want to block from each of your kids. You
can also block Internet access during certain times of the day and
have different settings for each child. It will even email you a
report or send you a text message if your child attempts to visit
banned websites.&rdquo; Courtney also tells teens &ldquo;If you receive a
sexual solicitation, copy and paste it in an email and send it to
CyberTipline.com.&rdquo;
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<p>
<strong>
This article was written by Victoria Pericon.<br />
If you wish to use this article in any manner, you must <a href="index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=51&amp;Itemid=165">request permission</a>.</strong> <br />
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