- Keep your child's computer in a public place, with the screen facing out into the room. Do not allow kids to have their computers in their bedrooms. Allowing the computer to be located in your child's bedroom builds and reinforces the idea that your child's activities online are private.
- Install web-based content-filtering software on all of your household computers. (This is in addition to anti-virus and anti-spam software.) Use a very secure password for configuring the software. And don't fall into the trap of believing your child to be completely safe once the software is installed and configured-maintain other good parenting practices and keep a watchful eye on your child. Two very strong products are Content Protect 2.5 (www.contentwatch.com) and CyberPatrol 7.6 (www.surfcontrol.com). Other products exist, too, but these stand out for their overall quality.
- Check up on your child. Review your child's instant messenger buddy lists and set up instant message history tracking. Review her or his Internet history, search his hard drives, and snoop around on his child. If your child's Internet history has been cleaned, ask questions. Search your child's hard drives for files with .jpg, .gif, .wmv, and .mov extensions in particular. Be reasonable in drawing conclusions: many files are downloaded as parts of advertisements on legitimate websites.
- Realize that peer-to-peer networking is not just a music-swapping thing for kids; it exposes children to videos, images, movies, and other information.
- Disallow chat rooms. Recognize that chat rooms are the playground of today's sexual predator.
- Tell your child not to give out personal information over the Internet, such as name, address, telephone number, password, etc. Children are naïve about the dangers of the Internet; preparing them by actively cautioning them against risky online behavior will reduce the risks to them.
- Establish online rules and an agreement with your child about Internet use at home and outside of the home (i.e., at a friend's house, at school, at the library, etc).
- Additional sources of information about Child Safety can be found at www.protectkids.com and www.safekids.com.