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.