Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania

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Internet Safety Tips

This is a list of high level tips to related to safety on the internet.  Please check out the other web sites listed under Parenting Resources - Internet Safety.  The web sites dealing with Safety Rules for Kids Using the Internet have more detailed information on concerns related to use of chat rooms, bulletin boards, email, etc.

• Learn the basics about the internet such as browsing, chat rooms and e-mail.  This will help you understand what activities are available to your children on the internet.
• Keep your computer located where you can easily observe it's use, such as the family room.   Monitor what your child is using the internet for: Research for school, general browsing, chat rooms, email, etc.
• Utilize features of the internet browser to determine the sites your child is visiting.  Most internet browsers allow for checking what sites were visited during the current session.   Also, a history of sites visited in prior sessions is typically available.  For those more familiar with computers, each internet browser keeps a cache of files visited.  These can be examined, in the Windows operating system typically under the directory "Temporary Internet Files".
• Filtering software is available to eliminate access to undesirable sites.   Be aware that what to filter can be subjective and vary greatly from one product to another.   Your internet service provider may supply filtering software.  Software can be installed on your PC that can do the filtering. You will want to be sure that the internet service provider or PC software provides updates to filter out future unwanted sites.
• Chat-rooms/bulletin boards/email - Be aware that anyone can enter a chat room.  It would be a good idea to occasionally monitor the discussion in the chat rooms and the nature of email that your child is sending and/or receiving. Make sure the people and material is appropriate for your child.
• Personal Web Pages - Remember  that anyone in the world has access to the information posted on a personal web page.  Consider carefully what information is posted.
• Cookies are small programs that web sites download onto your computer.   Cookies can be useful by allowing the web site to customize future visits that allow easier use of the web site.  Cookies can also be used to transmit information contained on your computer back to the web site.  Do you want information transmitted back to web sites you visit?  Most internet browsers come with cookies enabled, which means that the browser allows cookies to be downloaded.  You can disable the use of cookies from any web site.  Another option is to have a warning issued when a cookie is being downloaded and then selectively enable downloading of cookies based on the web site.