Today, the Internet has become an intrinsic part of our lives. Our children use the Internet for research and education as well as for entertainment. With the rise of social networking, children today are parts of many social networks like MySpace and FaceBook. In such environments, children come in contact with many strangers, and this is where the danger lies.

Online predators are adept at using the internet to lure children into their trap. They pretend to be children themselves to make friends with other children. Such online predators are a grave threat to your children’s safety and well being and, it is your responsibility to protect your children from them.

It is not possible to look over the shoulders of your child every time he or she is online. It will overwhelm the child and curb his spirit to explore. But, you still need to take steps to protect your child from online predators.

The easiest solution is to get PC monitoring software to be able to keep track of all the websites your child visits and all the people he or she interacts with. If you detect any threat or danger to your child’s safety, you can take immediate action. You can call the police on any person you suspect to be an online predator and you will find them keen to help you. Not only will you be protecting your own child, you will be helping make the Internet free of online predators.

But answer yourself to the following questions and see if your child is having a safe online browsing while you are solving everyday problems.

• Is your child online late at night?
• Is your child creating profiles on social networks or using microblogging services?
• Is your child alone for most of the time during his or her online sessions?
• Is your child spending the majority of his or her time online in chat rooms?
• Does your child minimize the screen on the computer when you walk by?
• Do you notice several programs showing in the task bar at the bottom of the screen, but no programs active on the monitor? This is a sure sign that something your child does not want you to see is hiding in the task bar.
• Do you know all your child online friends or it has in list unknown persons?
• Did your child give private information to strangers?
• Is your child hesitant to talk about or evasive in describing his or her online experiences?
• Is your child more addicted to Internet than playing outside with his friends?
• Is your child spending lots of time playing games? (This might take to game addiction).
• Is your child exposed to violent, pornographic material on the Internet?
• What is his general mindset? Is he a risk taker? Is he too trusting of other people?
• Does he communicate with you about his life in general, including school and activities?

If you have answered to all these questions than you definitely came up to a conclusion regarding your child online activity. If you think that your child might be at risk that you should take some action. There are lost of solutions, but the first think you have to do is to talk with your child. Explain to your child what Internet is and expose him the dangers he might encounter.

What people don’t understand is that the best way to protect child is through education. And to support my saying I can give you this link and read by yourself what experts are saying about online education. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/2007/07/23/tech-online-predators.html)

There are also other solutions. For example you could install on your child’s computer parental control software that will block or restrict his activity. These applications are very useful and your child will only be able to browse the web at specific hours, on specific web pages, without the risk of being exposed to inappropriate content.
If you want another alternative, you can choose to hire a nanny. Of course this solution is more expensive and involves more resources. But when it comes about your child’s security nothing is more important.

From my point of view the best defense against online dangers is education, but I guess each parent know what’s better for his family.

Sites risking online privacy of children, sites engaged in inappropriate activities and sites having information misfit for children, are all dangers for children and nightmares for parents.
If parents think that sexual and pornographic materials are the only types of content that they should guard their children against, then they are grossly mistaken. There can be many other categories of harmful content and information available through the Internet, which may pose as greater risks for children.

Sites, having advertisements of tobacco and alcoholic products, propagating the use of drugs, teaching the process of making bombs and explosives, teaching the use of a revolver, teaching ways of acquiring and using a revolver without a license, having online casinos, selling alcohol, drugs, poison or weapons, and teaching easy and often fraudulent ways of earning cash, can be much more hazardous for children than sites having sexual material. Sites abusing education, literature, religion, and sites full of misinformation can do damages that may become irrevocable.

There are a large number of sites that ask the children to share sensitive personal information. Collection of such information is relatively easy when the Internet-user is an innocent kid and thus the entire family can be made a target of an unfair marketing program. Often, unsuspecting divulgence of sensitive data, by the children, can lead parents into serious trouble and can even make them bankrupt.

What parents should do

Before knowing what they should do, parents should first know what they should never do. Parents should never ever forbid the children to use the Internet, telling that it is a place that is “bad” and can harm them. On the contrary, they should highlight the various positives of the Internet in a simplified fashion and encourage children to use it. Forbidding the children, highlighting the dangers of the Internet, will attract the children towards the negatives without delay.

Parents should:

a)    Be around, if possible, when the child is accessing the Internet.
b)    Be a friend and encourage the child to open sites that will help him do his history project or his geography assignment. This will imbibe an idea in the child’s mind that Internet is all about interesting information that is not available in the books.
c)    Block sites that they consider inappropriate for the child’s access.
d)    Educate the child to maintain privacy by not sharing personal information like address and phone number, and sensitive information like bank and credit card details of parents. They should be taught to not buy things online and never to access or lose files that the parents are working on.
e)    Tell the child simple stories about computer crimes to give them a basic idea about the threats the Internet can pose to them and their parents.
f)    Most importantly, imbibe a sense of responsibility and choice in the child’s mind, so that no matter which computer he accesses the Internet from, or what site he reaches, he can have the judgment to know what is bad and what is good.

When a child surfs the Internet without someone to watch over them, they are left with unlimited freedom to do what they want. They can chat with strangers that they don’t know and browse Internet content that might not be appropriate for them. It is easy to say that the Internet is not a safe place for children. There are, however, instruments parents and guardians can use to see what they’re children are doing while browsing the Internet. This makes it possible for you to know your children’s Internet habits.

Internet spy software choices are various, and they provide a way for you to view a child’s recent Internet use activity. With this type of Internet software, you will able to view what types of websites your child visited. You can also see what images, videos, music, games, and other types of downloads took place on their computer.

Another type of helpful software used by parents to view their child’s Internet browsing habits is known as a keylogger. Keylogger software tracks the key strokes made on a child’s keyboard, and then saves that data onto a log file. This is excellent for those who wish to see who your child has been talking to online, and what they have been talking about. There are even options in some keylogger programs that allow logs to be emailed to a parent in real time; they can watch over their children while they are out at work!

Your children’s Internet browsing habits don’t have to be insecure. With different types of software, you can track and maintain your child’s Internet browsing habits.