Week 2: #4 Online Safety and Sharing

The Internet is a great place to get information, communicate with others, and shop. Internet safety is so important in today’s world. You really have to be careful about typing out your personal information on websites and you really don’t know what happens to the information you send through cyberspace. And most all how can you be sure your children are safe online? As a parent and working in the children’s department of the library, I always tell myself and other about ways to keep their information private when they are online. There are some very important things that you need to keep in mind when you're on your computer at home or at school. First and always remembering to never to give out personal information such as your name, home address, school name, or telephone number in a chat room or on bulletin boards. Always keep your passwords secret and emails are not always private (even though some people might think that). Learn what "cookies" are and what is does and watch out for "spam." Sometimes you may want to be anonymous and most of all decide what information you want to provide. I am very careful about internet safety because of all the happenings you hear about violating someone’s privacy especially children’s. I believe that you should never type on you blog or anything else in cyberspace anything you wouldn't want shared with the world. I teach my daughter who is 4 about what she should tell her friends and I watch when she plays games online. She could go to a site that I don't know type her name or something.......children are too trusting.

Cyberspace is great if use correctly!

For more information on Children's privacy and internet safety for parents.