Internet Social Media and Your Children's Safety

Kids love facebook, twitter, my space and other Social Media

With the popularity of social networking sites, here are some words of caution. Not everybody trying to be your friend is really trying "to be your friend". They may have other reasons, and you should definitely know what they are.

Keeping an eye on your children's activities will help protect identity theft (theirs and yours) and keep sexual predators at bay.

Content such as foul language, bullying and threats, especially terminology and sexually explicit photos and videos can be hidden in the pages of other members' profiles, photo galleries, blogs, forums and groups.

Some social networking websites closely monitor certain word tags assigned to videos, photos and groups. They might also have a direct link to the administrator's pages so that members can easily report offensive content.

Although offensive content can appear anywhere on a social networking website, the most explicit content seem to appear mostly in group forums. So it pays to be vigilant when you are a parent trying to protect a child.

As a caring and vigilant parent, the very first thing you should do is teach your children about the possible dangers that exist on the Internet, particularly about situations that might crop up on a social networking website.

Important Lessons for your kid's Safety include these topics:

● Remind them that the Internet makes it easy for people to make believe they are someone else. They can easily change their name, age and gender in an effort to get close to children.

● Tell them to never give out personal information about themselves, the family, neighbors or friends to strangers they may meet online.

● Tell them not to post pictures of your house with identifiable numbers and street names or pictures showing a phone number.

● Let them know that if they encounter something or someone dangerous they should tell you about it.

and. ..

● Tell them that if they ever receive an emailed picture with sexual content, or see something on the social networking website that they find disturbing, they should tell you about it immediately.

Social networking sites are fun and children want to participate in them. They'll want to build personal profiles and explore the profiles of others, but encourage theme to resist the urge to "tell all".

Your children's social networking experience can still be fun and rewarding. They can make new friends and yes, some of them may also be suspicious, but on the Internet, a little common sense goes a long way.
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                Read more - Identity Theft Awareness for Parents and Children

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Internet Filtering Net Nanny can block not only pornography, but hate sites, questionable chat rooms and other dangers of the Internet. You can configure Net Nanny to block online game and gambling sites, and even make it so your children can only install and play computer games with parental ratings that you deem appropriate.

Net Nanny even offers a simple, easy to use set-up assistant to help parents determine what online activities (Web sites, chat, gaming and social networks) are appropriate based on your family members age.

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