Assuring Your Child's Safety Online

Billions of people access the Internet for various reasons every day. Since there are no age restrictions on Internet access in general, even the children are exploring the World Wide Web. Nowadays, children as young as 7 years old are already familiar with the Internet.

Every day, the online world grows bigger. Included in the growing population of Internet users are the online criminals and predators who terrorize the virtual worlds. Kids are in danger when they're online—and that is not an exaggeration. There are a lot of malicious users on the World Wide Web, and children are not safe from them. Internet safety for kids should thus be strictly enforced.                                                          

A lot of people have fallen victim to the dark side of the Internet. Some of these cases include child pornography, cyberbullying, and identity theft. Aside from these, there are also a myriad of web pages displaying violent, malicious, and pornographic content that are obviously not suitable for children. To prevent kids from accessing such content, child Internet safety software are now available. These kinds of software filter the content that a child may see when browsing the Internet. They detect the malicious content and prohibit access so parents can be assured that their children will be safe.

You can also do some research on other technologies that promote Internet safety for kids online. The Internet is a community populated by almost the whole world, so just about anyone can access it. In other words, you never know whom your children will encounter online.

Here are some safety tips that you should tell your children:

• Do not give out any personal information such as your address and telephone number to strangers.
• Never respond to spam messages and email messages that you think are suspicious.
• Never agree to meet a person that you do not know. If anyone tries to contact you, inform your parents.
• Don't believe everything you see online. It’s easy for anyone to create multiple accounts to fool you, so be careful and don’t fall into their traps.

Since computer games became popular, there have been a lot of online games created, but not all of them offer safety online. Some games are meant to be played by adults because of their violent and malicious content. There are, however, a number of online games that are safe enough to be played by children and do not include obscene and violent content.

Kids wouldn't want their parents watching them every time they are online. And not all parents have the time to do so. As such, it is important to choose software and sites that are specially developed to provide online security to people, especially young kids.