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Talk with your Teens About What
They Can and Cannot Do Online
Be reasonable and set reasonable expectations. Try to understand their
needs, interests, and curiosity. Remember what it was like when you were
their age.
Be Open with Your Teens and Encourage Them to Come to You if They
Encounter a Problem Online If they tell you about someone or
something they encountered, your first response should not be to blame
them or take away their Internet privileges. Work with them to help avoid
problems in the future, and remember, your response will determine whether
they confide you the next time they encounter a problem and they learn to
deal with problems on their own.
Learn
Everything You Can About the Internet Ask your teens to show
you what's cool. Have them show you great places for teens and fill you in
on areas that you might benefit from as well. Make 'surfing the net' a
family experience. Use it to plan a vacation, pick out a movie, or check
out other family activities. Make this one area where you get to be the
student and your child gets to be the teacher.
Check Out Blocking,
Filtering and Ratings Applications As you may know, there
are now services that rate web sites for content as well as filtering
programs and browsers that empower parents to block the types of sites
they consider to be inappropriate. These programs work in different ways.
Some block sites known to contain objectionable material. Some prevent
users from entering certain types of information such as their name and
address. Other programs keep your children away from chat rooms or
restrict their ability to send or read E-mail. Generally these programs
can be configured by the parent to only block the types of sites that the
parent considers to be objectionable.
Whether or not it is appropriate to use one of these programs is a
personal decision. If you do use such a program, you'll probably need to
explain to your teen why you feel it is necessary. You should also be
careful to choose a program with criteria that reflects your family's
values. Be sure to configure it so that it doesn't block sites that you
want your teen to be able to visit.
It is
important to realize that filtering programs cannot protect your child
from all dangers in cyberspace. To begin with, no program can possibly
block out every inappropriate site. What's more, it's possible, in some
cases, for the programs to block sites that are appropriate. If you use a
filtering program, you should re-evaluate it periodically to make sure
it's working for your family.
Filtering programs are not a substitute for good judgment or critical
thinking. With or without filters, children and their parents need to be
'net savvy' and communicate with each other.
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