Internet safety for teenagers is a subject of concern for many parents today. It is true that the Internet is overall a terrific resource for teens, as it is an excellent research tool for homework. Furthermore, it provides a great way for teens to keep in touch with friends and relatives. On the other hand, parents have a lot to be concerned about regarding their teenagers’ use of the Internet, as teens are more susceptible to scams and dangers that are prevalent online.
Online predators, pornographic material, and the potential to download material with viruses on it are all threats facing teens on the Internet. Fortunately, there is much that parents can do to address these threats. This includes placing parental controls on computers and encouraging the safety of email; chat rooms and instant messengers; social networking sites; and blogs.
To begin, it is imperative that parents place parental controls on computers. This implies that parents download software on their computers that figures out which programs that their children can view. There are many free versions of such software available.
Next, encouraging the safety of email is a must for parents who wish to shield their children from online problems. Parents should prevent their teens from opening spam mail, and teens should also be encouraged to not open any file whose origin they are not aware of. This is since a single file that looks legitimate can contain viruses that will knock out every last bit of important information, including work-related documents and precious photos, from a computer.
Encouraging chat room and instant messenger safety is also critical to ensuring that teens have an overall safe experience on the Internet. Chat rooms and instant messengers operate on the basis of anonymity, and it must be stressed to teens that they should not reveal any parts of their names, social security numbers, addresses, birth dates, and more within these forums. Their screen names should be as generic as possible, as online predators who seek naive and vulnerable teens unfortunately are present in great quantities on the Internet.
Encouraging safe practices for teens on social networking sites is yet another action that must be taken to ensure that teens are kept safe on the Internet. While the onset of social networking sites has been accompanied by many positive stories of friends and relatives being reunited and/or being able to keep in touch on an almost daily basis, some social ills have unfortunately accompanied the sites. This is not to be unexpected, for as great as the social networking media outlets are, they have millions of users, a small percentage of which consists of online predators. To steer clear of threatening individuals, teens are urged to use the solid privacy function features prevalent on all of the major social media sites. These features ensure that only the teens’ family and friends can view their pages. Teens are also highly discouraged from friending people who they do not know or who they have never met before.
Last but not least, blog safety is encouraged for teens. Blogs are sites where teens can post their thoughts, and just like social networking sites, they provide a great forum from which teens can keep in touch with their family and friends. Nonetheless, just as in the case of chat rooms and instant messengers, teens need to be as anonymous as possible when they post in blogs to discourage any online predators from getting in contact with them.
In conclusion, the Internet is an excellent educational and social resource for teens. Nonetheless, many dangers are to be found on the Internet, and parents need to take charge to ensure that their teens have a safe online experience. The actions that they could take towards Internet safety include but are not limited to placing parental controls on computers and encouraging the safety of email; chat rooms and instant messengers; social networking sites; and blogs.
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