08 Mar Protecting Your Children’s Privacy

Protecting your children’s privacy is perhaps the most important reason in the world to be familiar with the steps necessary to prevent problems with privacy invasion.

While children are not necessarily targets of identity theft they are overwhelmingly susceptible to becoming targets of more insidious crimes which start with the perpetrator learning the identity of your child.

Understanding how chat rooms and email work can help parents teach children to behave safely online. While there are many programs and procedures you can use to track the activity of your children it is most important to educate them about the dangers of chatting online when you don’t know who they are talking to or who is reading what they say.

Take similar precautions when your child has a cell phone or text messaging service.

Online Fourms and Chat Rooms

Does your child understand that listing their real name, address, telephone number or information like the school they attend can be potentially dangerous if the wrong person decides to get in contact with them?

Do they realize that although the forum or chat room is SUPPOSED to be for children there are possibly adults pretending to be children in order to take advantage of them?

While you do not want to unduly frighten your children it would be more terrifying if you found out that they had been in contact with a pedophile and they did not know how to tell you about it.

Give them rules. Here are some you may want to discuss with your child(ren):

1) NEVER give out your name, address, telephone number or picture. NEVER agree to meet someone you met online without your parent’s approval.

2) REMEMBER you are speaking in a public area – other people may read what you write.

3) REFUSE to enter a private chat room. These rooms are closed off to the public and your child may be lured in by an adult trying to seduce them.

4) Encourage them to TELL you what goes on. Just as you would monitor who they spend time with after school or what TV programs they watch – you want them to feel comfortable telling you about their online friends.What can you do to prevent identity theft? Get free adware download and protect your online privacy.

5) LIMIT the amount of time they spend online. While talking with friends about sports, fashion or other interests may be fun it is not wholly productive for children to spend hours online chatting. It is also more likely that they will investigate sites or forums that are unsuitable for children. Curiosity may lure them in over their heads.