How to Talk to Your Child About the Dangers of Internet

It's ten o'clock on a Sunday night. You've got some popcorn and you're settling down to watch some Tivo'ed episodes of Antique Road Show. In the other room, your son's on the Internet.

He's probably not looking at pornography while buying weapons and chatting with a stranger on Myspace in a communist chat room. But it's possible, isn't it?

Forgive the alarmist intro. The fact is, if you've got kids, you probably already realize that the Internet isn't the best place for child safety. There's pornography (and boatloads of it), bad language, bad ideas, bad people. Bad stuff for kids to get into.

It's a scary Internet out there.

There are programs to help parents protect kids from Internet dangers, but they're by no means complete protection. You can block websites using keywords, ratings (which not all websites follow), content, and other criteria, but the Internet's such a constantly expanding media source that total protection's impossible.

That's not to say that you shouldn't try to protect your kids from what's out there on the Internet, nor that you shouldn't use child protection programs. All parents should talk to their children and explain that the Internet is a dangerous place.

First, tell your child what you consider to be inappropriate. Let them know you'll monitor their web use, and that pornography and hateful sites aren't acceptable. Make a list of the type of material you don't think they should be looking at and make sure that your child understands what each term means.

Lay out some consequences for poor Internet usage, such as losing Internet privileges, getting grounded, etc. Let your child know how much time is OK to spend on the Internet, and if they start spending too much time, regulate their usage by giving them a set amount of time a day.