Very Involved Parents (VIP)

In this technologically advanced age we are in, children are exposed to computers at a young age. This does not mean that they are well equipped or matured enough to protect themselves from harm on the internet. As a result, parents are the ones to prevent their children from coming to harm.

The latest trend amongst youngsters is social networking sites like the popular Facebook. As parents, you should equip yourselves with knowledge about social networking sites as by educating yourselves about on these matters, you can help keep them safe from would be predators.

Sites like Facebook require their users to be at least 13 of age. As parents, you would do well to follow this policy too! Allow your children to register and use these sites only if they are above 13 or even better, when you think they are mature enough. Control their usage a keep an eye on the people they interact with frequently. By doing so, you can spot any suspicious activity and nip it in the bud.

You can also install filters that restrict the usage of the internet that are available in the market. This can help prevent your children from browsing websites you do not approve of. Try to do this without their knowledge as they might try to overcome the filters. Browse through their webpage history after their session to check if there are any irregularities too.

Talk to your children and warn them about the dangers lurking in the internet. Remind them to be careful with their personal information and not divulge too much about themselves to strangers or “net-friends”. It’s also good to know their friends in person as you can tell better which people can be true friends. Your child may also have more things to chat about with you! This can help to keep them safe from being conned or taken advantage of.

Being in control also has its limits. Do not overly control or restrict your children as they might be unhappy and rebel against you. Once you think your children are capable of being responsible, you may start to loosen up a bit and give them more freedom on their own. Remember to talk to them to have a clearer picture on what’s going on. Well, if they feel uncomfortable talking to you face to face, you can add them as a friend on the networking site! How cool having tech-savvy parents!

Many criminals now resort to the internet and you do not wish your children to be involved in these things. As both parties are separated by computers, you do not know what kind of person is on the other side. Children are still not mature enough to handle these on their own so it will be up to parents to guide them. Well, better be safe than sorry!

In this 21st century society, Internet is everywhere and in fact it has become an essential part of our lives which we cannot live without. The emergence of the modern Internet had largely changed the way how businesses were coordinated and operated years back. It has also influence our live-styles and live patterns for it has become the hottest medium of communications with the outside world which we found to be inevitable. Internet has also removed the old beliefs that every business needs to be supported by having a premise such as a shop let, a stall or even a mall to begin with.

Today there are hundreds and thousands of online businesses which emerged competitively in the Internet, each trying to gauge the best returns that they are able to from this highly prospective business with low capital investment model to start with. One of the popular areas which Internet services had largely dominant in today is for the children, such as below:

• Interesting Internet information resource for the children such as Wikipedia and kids forum
• Online Entertainment such as e-news, online music with online games and matches
• E-Training and extra-curriculum such as English lessons, lessons on literature and poetry, art lessons and many more
• Sharing of information and communication channels such as blog, online chat rooms , facebook

All of us know and realized the high importance of the internet today for our children on what they have contributed in. At the same time, not all of us are aware on the negative impact and risks which the Internet had brought into our children life. I wish to elaborate and share more on this area with all beloved parents as below:

1. Deterioration in health – It has been cited that the Internet online games has gained its huge popularity among the youth especially for those ranging from 15 to 19 years of age. The lack of physical activities over the long run from these children for spending an extended long time by their computer daily on the online games, their health will be affected with lack of sweating as well as having their eyes over-stressed with continuous being in front of the computer for long hours.

2. Increase of fall-out from schools – This has also seriously jeopardizing their studies and academic results with the lost of studying time and negligence of their school work resulting in poor performance in their academic. This group of teenagers will eventually be falling out of the schools if they can cut off their relationship with the Internet where they are possessed with.

3. Not all of the chat rooms and forums designed for children are showered with healthy and positive information. It is very easy for anyone to setup their own website nowadays, which had driven the increased of websites propagating unsuitable and inaccurate information for these children.

4. Through the huge number of websites which exist in the Internet today, these teenagers may potentially getting access into pornographic website, website promoting for violence or any harmful activities such as hatched, snatching, bullying, drugs and many more. It is very difficult to filter and sensor off some of the harmful and inappropriate information which get posted over the Internet as we wished to be.

5. Through some of these information and incidents where they get to learn from the Internet, some of these innocent children may commit a crime without realizing themselves to be doing something against the law. Here are some examples of such incidents – miss-use of emails and MSN with the purpose of threatening or harassing others, which might be to other strangers or their peers in the school by hiding their real identity.

In this 21^st century, we can find almost everything from the Internet today, which had drastically enhance our knowledge in specific areas of interest. Information which we can only find from the library previously can be found through the internet search anytime and best of all, the internet is free of charge. The internet is a vast new world for the young learners where lots of pictures, pages, videos, illustrations, and information can be found. Thus, it is of no surprise that children as young as four years old are taught on how to operate the computer from their nursery learning today!

There are many usage of the Internet today. Let me try to quote some key ones which I can share here:

1. The Internet can be a great source of information where the children can gain knowledge from such as a new kind of art, a new hot hobby, a new country or city through the use of Google map and lots more.

2. At the same time, the Internet can be a useful source if one is looking out for something in particular, such as searching for a new nursery or a new art class by looking into the various directories.

3. It can also be a very fun place for these young children because through the Internet, they can find lots of graphic pictures and videos to better illustrate on some areas or stuffs which they always wanted to know more. Also, young children can also learn on how to make delicious pastries and beautiful cakes through the various techniques and methods which are shared  through the Internet.

While some of the key important positive usage of the internet are cited above, the internet also has it harmful side which are not suitable, while some may even irritates the young ones’ feelings or emotions to see or learn of. In order to avoid any of these negative consequences which the Internet might bring, here are some of the useful tips to avoid and to alleviate some of the hazardous elements of the Internet to the young children;

1. Move the placement of your home computer to an open area rather than placing it in your children’s room or in the study room. This will allow one to watch out what are on the computer and also to monitor how long have your kids being on that Internet.

2. Set a time limit for Internet browsing such as a maximum of 30 minutes per day for your young kids.  The rest of the time should be reserved for using relevant programs from the computer to help on their school work.

3. While your children are searching and progressing through the internet to search on whatever needed to accomplish their school work, try to enjoy the search together with them. This will allow you to have sound idea on what they are looking for and why.

4. You may also setup an internet website filter to block porn sites or violence related sites. Some internet service provider had this type of filtering service as well. Most of these filters can also block sites which contain sexual content, violence information or pictures, nudity pictures or video or terrorism information and content.

5. You can also choose to setup a master user account where you have the master control against its account at all time.  Change the password periodically or when you sense that the internet might probably be missed used by your kids so that he is completely blocked from accessing the internet.

6. By checking the “Internet Cache Files” folders, you may be able to find out where do your children normally surfing and navigating. The internet temporarily files folders is another source to find out all these information.

You may also want to read this article: How To Keep Your Kids Safe On Facebook And Other Social Networks?