Guest Post: Talking To Your Children About Internet Safety

As children grow older they become curious about computers and the Internet, especially if Mum and Dad are using them on a daily basis. In fact, a lot of studies show that children who aren't introduced to technology at a younger age can sometimes lag behind at school when it comes to computer orientated classes. There's no getting around the fact that today, and even more so with every year that passes, technology is ubiquitous, important and necessary.

With this in mind, children who are introduced to the world of computers, at any point should be sat down to a conversation about safety, especially when using the Internet. The World Wide Web is a hive of information and multimedia so vast that there will always be certain parts of it that are a risk to a child's safety, innocence and curiosity. A simple talk with parents can help pave the way for a trouble free introduction to the Web.

The first thing to remind children of is that the Internet is not a gated community. Like the real world, you're free to roam pretty much where you like – the good and the bad. With the Internet it's your decision what you view, what you search for, and what you avoid. You must be ethical and honest; careful and cautious. Talking about links and ads is also important, and being able to differentiate between the two. Banner ads are usually boxed off and not related to the page at hand. This can lead to pages that are not relevant to what you are viewing and may be dangerous or inappropriate.

Passwords are another important topic to discuss. The importance of strong, varied passwords is paramount, along with not telling anyone what they are. Numbers and different case letters should be included, and dictionary words are easier to hack than an arbitrary array of characters. All of this is especially important when it comes to online banking and card transactions; although this doesn't apply to most children until they get to a certain age. That being said, it is sometimes worth mentioning.

Chat rooms, strangers, and emails are another thing to talk about. These three are mentioned together because they are the essence of unsolicited communication; a phenomenon that is rife on the Internet. Never reply, talk to, or discuss personal details with strangers or people proclaiming to be someone else. Always be wary of anyone asking for specific details about your life, especially when it comes from things like emails from banks, strangers from chat rooms, or Nigerian princes informing you that you've won the lottery. When it comes to the Internet, anything that smells the slightest bit contrived probably is.

There are a few things parents can do to keep the family computer safe. Search engines like Google have safe search settings to stop adult content from being shown in the search results. If you think it necessary, you can go one step further and install parental control software, which will stop adult content from being shown. This type of software will scan a website when it's requested, but before it's shown for any keywords related to certain adult subjects; if any are found, the page will be blocked.

All of these topics can help give your child a sense of responsibility when introducing them to the Internet, but most important of all is an open and honest discussion about ethics and technology as a whole. For more information, articles and software about internet safety, head over to the Gecko Parents website.