Due to the rapid evolution in computers, each new school year brings more exciting educational possibilities along with new dangers for kids that parents need to worry about. The same technology allows for both. The difference now is that whereas our forebearers once studied tiny one-room classrooms with primers and individual chalk slates, these days our kids have computerized slates that turn the entire planet into a single-room classroom and playground.
But the human problems remain the same. Distractions, bullies, cliques, shunning, cheating, flirting, gossiping, strangers, homework, stupid stunts, and all the rest are now online, too. And since the Internet will grow with them throughout their lives, today's children are just going to have to learn to cope with cyberspace. They are going to have to develop skills for surviving in the electronic schoolyard of the 21st century. Life is still like a high school, it's just a whole lot bigger now.
So parents, don't panic. Those same lessons you learned more through hard knocks and social interactions than in class, about manners, preparation, responsibility, and the values of friendship and the rest still apply. The only thing that's really changed is how the young connect. A lot of that, one way or another, involves the Internet, including texting and chat.
Electronic devices now come in all shapes, sizes, and capabilities. More and more have connections with the Internet, including gaming consoles. Cellphones can surf the Web, using specially served pages for their tiny screens. Even netbooks in schools can be linked, to each other and the Web. There's no escaping it.
Of course, parents and caregivers should seek to protect your charges online. Exposure should be regulated with even more care than TV time, due to the interactive dangers.
The simplest way to make it easier to monitor your kids' Internet activities and limit their time spent online is to place your home computer with Internet access in an open public area, not in a bedroom.
It may not be possible to control their access that way, especially if they're older and have their own netbooks or laptops and you have home wireless. Giving your kids secondary email accounts from your own email account allows some control over their email.
Actively checking the kids' computer out from time to time is a good idea. Everything should be looked at from browsing history to the working state of your firewall- the latter to make sure your budding geniuses haven't disabled it to make online gambling easier to download or to download new and potentially spyware-ridden software.
Staying involved is very important. If you need to get more "Big Brother" about it, there are more gadgets and packages that claim they can help all the time. A few are www.cybersitter.com, www.netnanny.com. These are still controversial. Claims are often made that some sites that should be blocked, aren't and vice versa, or that blocks can be evaded by tech-savvy teens. Internet monitoring with programs such as Webwatcher, www.awarenesstech.com/Parental is also controversial. Though less intrusive than blocking, doing it secretly could raise some real trust issues with your children.
Worried about your kids stealing others? Scare them by letting them know about site like Turnitin, which specialize in spotting plagiarism in papers. If time or access control is a problem when you're not at home, BOB, a "screentime controller" (usebob.com) is a physical lock out device to limit time spent in front of the screen -- computers, TVs, and video games too.
There are also devices to locate kids via cellphones, even notifying parents by email when they wander out of a designated zone, or car GPS units, monitoring location, time parked, and speed. But you may not find these necessary to actually use these products. Just hinting about them to your children may be enough.
However, because you ultimately cannot control their access to the outside world, the best defense for your kids is to teach them safe practices on the Net from an early age -- and of course, to learn them yourself. One good place to start is Kids Safety Online, www.kidsonlinesafety.org , which has lots of links. But if you don't have the time to research them all, from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, comes a quick and simple list of useful rules for keeping the little ones safe on the Internet:
Online Safety Rules for Kids:
- I will not give out personal information such as my address, telephone number, parent's work address/telephone number, or the name and location of my school without my parent's permission.
- I will tell my parents right away if I come across any information that makes me feel uncomfortable.
- I will never agree to get together with someone I "meet" online without first checking with my parents. If my parents agree to the meeting, I will be sure that it is in a public space and bring my mother or father along.
- I will never send a person my picture or anything else without first checking with my parents.
- I will not respond to any messages that are mean or in any way makes me feel uncomfortable. It is not my fault if I get a message like this. If I do, I will tell my parents right away so that they can contact the online service.
- I will talk to my parents so that we can set up rules for going online. We will decide upon the time of the day that I can be online, the length of time I can be online and appropriate areas for me to visit. I will not access these areas or break these rules without their permission.
(SWCP - Southwest Cyberport, www.swcp.com.)
