The University Magazine
The new face of cybercrime
Keeping children safe online: Tips for parents
An RIT study reveals that a high percentage of cybercrimes against children are committed by other children. The perpetrator is also significantly more likely to be a fellow student than an adult.
There are some basic steps parents can take to help protect their children against Internet dangers. The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative offers the following tips for parents to help keep their children safe online:
- Keep your computer in a common area of your home, such as the family room.
- Monitor your children’s Internet habits and ask them to show you Web sites they visit.
- Talk to your children about cyber ethics. Remind them that bullying, cheating and illegally downloading music, movies and software are wrong.
- Develop an “Internet usage contract” for your children and sign it.
- Review your children’s instant messenger profiles and messages, in addition to their social networking profiles on sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Periodically take a look at the profiles of their friends as well.
- Set time limits on Internet usage.
- Know your children’s friends – online as well as in person.
- Stress Internet “stranger danger.”
- Do a “Google” search for your children’s names to make sure that their personal information and photos are not easily searchable on the Internet.
The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative is a partnership between Rochester Institute of Technology, more than 20 Rochester area school districts, Time Warner Cable, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Information Systems Security Association and InfraGard Member Alliance of Rochester, a program of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
For more Internet safety tips for children, parents, educators and businesses, visit The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative Web site at www.bcybersafe.org.