A Parent’s Cybersafety Kit








Parents' concerns about the amount of time their children spend on computers and the content they may encounter online have spawned an industry of computer monitoring and blocking products.

A Variety of Tools Can Help You Monitor Your Kids' Screen Time


By Lauren Gibbons Paul


Kids on the Internet: e-mailing, instant messaging and surfing the Web for games, chat rooms, music and “cool” sites. It’s all part of daily life for many of today’s children.


And while computers and the Internet are terrific learning resources for children, parents also have plenty to worry about when it comes to this technology: from fears about children’s access to online pornography – or, worse, potential sexual abusers’ access to kids – to concerns about how marketers target children online. Parents fret about how much time their kids spend at the computer and how they represent themselves in e-mails, chat rooms or instant messages (IM).


Then there are the unwanted consequences of unsafe surfing – viruses, spyware and spam – digital nuisances or rogue programs that can bog down or corrupt your computer.





Wired Adolescence

In the United States, 87 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 – that’s 21 million teenagers – now use the Internet. Of these teen Internet users:


• 51 percent say they go online every day.


• About 17 million play games online.


•16 million read the news online.


• 9 million shop online.


• 6 million use the Internet to get health information.


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