Diligent Joy Blog: Summer Online Safety Tips

School is out for most children and teens, which often means more free time. How can you help keep your child or teen safe electronically this summer? Aside from tossing all cell phones and computers, here are some tips.

•    Remind them that nothing in cyberspace is every really private and that you can’t ever “unsend.”
•    Talk to your child and teen about online conversations, information sharing, and texts. Make sure they know it’s difficult to tell who is really on the other end of these conversations, and that it’s very easy for them to be forwarded without their knowledge.
•    Talk about how it’s virtually impossible to be anonymous electronically
•    Remind them they shouldn’t give in to peer pressure to do anything that makes them uncomfortable, even electronically. For more information about these issues and about “sexting” (sending sexually suggestive pictures or texts), go to http://www.thenationalcampaign.org.

• Here are some other helpful sites:

o http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/index2.html. This site has lots of information about cyber bullying, and guidelines by age of how to help your child or teen be safer online.

o http://www.athinline.org . This MTV site includes a quiz for preteens and teens to test their safety savvy online. Encourage or require your child/teen to take the quiz as part of the responsibility they have for the privilege of using the internet or having a cell phone. Talk about the results together.

o http://wiredsafety.org/fbprivacy/index.htm. This is a step-by-step guide for how to set your privacy settings on facebook to decrease the amount of information shared with outside sites. Go through it with your child/teen for their site, and for your own if you have one.

o http://www.opendns.com/familyshield This free program allows you to protect every internet-connected device in your home at once--no need to purchase multiple copies of software for multiple computers.

o Consider a parental control system for cell phones, such as the one from SMobile (http://www.smparentalcontrols.com/). For under $30 a year, you can monitor texts, set alerts, and more.

Parents have the responsibility to set appropriate limits for cell phone and computer use. These are privileges, and require responsibility in order to be extended. Keep informed, keep cool, and keep your summer safe online.

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Amy Johnson, MSW,is a Personal Parent Coach who is passionate about working with parents regarding balance, self-care and faith and sexuality. She is co-author of the book, Parenting by Strengths: A Parent's Guide to Challenging Situations. Amy is also a member of the Best Parent Coaching Directory. Click here to contact Amy.