| It is very important to protect your children and supervise them when they are on the Internet. You should consider using a program that will screen and block sites on the Internet that are not appropriate for children (such as SurfWatch, SurfMonkey, SafeSurf or NetNanny), using an Internet provider that can be filtered for adult content (such as America Online, where you can limit your kids to either a kids only or teens only area) and limiting your children's use of search engines that can easily find adult material (use a kid safe search engine like www.yahooligans.com instead) .
Other tips to ensure your child's safety is to warn your children against giving personal information, including their last name, address, phone number or picture to anyone they meet online; put the computer in an area of the house where you can supervise them when they are using it; closely supervise their participation in chat rooms (where they can encounter people of all ages and backgrounds); and be sure that you know how to and are able to log onto any system that they are using. To ensure that your child is not unsupervised on the Internet, do not allow them to have the login password. Also, be sure that your child realizes that people they meet online may not really be who they present themselves to be and never allow them to meet anyone in person that they were introduced to online without supervision. See the web site www.safekids.com and www.safeteens.com for more info.
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