Parental Control - Dangers To Your Child Online & Internet Child Safety Tips

Did you know...?

1 in 5 children who use computer chatrooms has been approached over the Internet by pedophiles.

89% of sexual solicitations were made in either chat rooms or Instant Messages.

13 million youth use Instant Messaging.

1 in 4 kids has been sent a picture of naked people or people having sex online.

1 in 33 kids received AGGRESSIVE sexual solicitation (asked to meet, called them via phone, sent mail, money or gifts).

25% of youth who received sexual solicitation told a parent.

Nine out of 10 children aged between eight and 16 have viewed pornography on the Internet. In most cases, the sex sites were accessed unintentionally when a child, often in the process of doing Homework, used a seemingly innocent sounding word to search for information or pictures.

Children are reported missing at the rate of 750,000 per year, 62,500 per month, 14,423, per week, 2,054 per day, and 85 per hour or 3 children every 2 minutes.

44 percent of children polled have visited x-rated sites or sites with sexual content. Moreover, 43 percent of children said they do not have rules about Internet use in their Homes.

11/98 - 11-year-old Josh had been looking at graphic violent porn on the Internet for 20 minutes immediately before stabbing 8-year-old Maddie Clifton to death.

6/29/98 - 13-year-old (boy) was in the Phoenix Burton Barr Library viewing porn on the Internet. He followed a 4-year-old into the bathroom and asked the younger boy to give him oral sex.

While 75% of parents say they know where children spend time online, the truth about kids' Internet habits show 58% of teens say they have accessed an objectionable Web site: 39 % offensive music, 25% sexual content and 20% violence.

62% of parents of teenagers are unaware that their children have accessed objectionable websites.

21/5/02 - was the first death of a child linked directly to an Internet Predator?

The Internet is a wonderful tool for communications, education or leisure. It is a library with an incredible 100 million books on every topic known, easily accessible for research and study . It gives you the ability to chat in real time to anyone, anywhere across the world. Its high speed electronic mail routes link up the entire world into a true global village. Its an exciting and essential resource for all our children - as essential as learning to read, write and do Math.

But there are some risks to our children when they are using the Internet, risks which parents need to be aware of. Internet technology is a tool. A tool can be used or abused.

For a long time now the biggest concern for parents about the Internet used to be pornography. Today there is an even greater fear, live chat rooms.

The live chat rooms are the main areas of the Internet where sexual predators cruise searching for vulnerable children.

Due to the relative degree of anonymity online predators are able to deceive children. They may lie about their age or gender. Online predators often establish intimate relationships with children under the pretense of being part of the child's peer group. Since age identification is impossible, kids need to be careful when chatting online with who they think is part of their peer group. Children are curious and trusting. Unless they are well prepared for what can happen in live chat, they may innocently believe what they are told online by strangers.

Predators target children online who appear lonely, have low self-esteem, and lack parental supervision. It is not uncommon for a pedophile to become the online "confidant" of a lonely child, and they will often teach the child how to keep the online friendship a secret from their parents. Online, just as offline, it is the child who is left alone who is most at risk.

Children who have been seduced, lured or abused online in real-time chat generally have parents who are not Internet experienced.

So whats the solution for todays parents?

Top 10 Internet Safety Tips:

1. You need to educate yourself in the use of the computer and the Internet. Both pre-school and school children generally have more of a wo