eSecurity
The Internet offers great experiences for adults and children. There are opportunities to improve your life, have some fun, enhance your education or pursue business interests. Young people are often enthusiastic Internet users, particularly of interactive services like Email, Chat and Instant Messaging. However, like many exciting activities, there are risky situations to deal with and hazards to avoid. Learning how to use the Internet is not hard, it just takes some thinking and getting used to, like any new situation you get involved in.
The links below provide information and advice to adults, especially parents and teachers, about potential problems of life on the Internet and how to behave. If responsible adults understand the issues and know how to deal with safety concerns, they are better able to support young people who use the Internet and encourage them to be safe online.
Golden Rules
For Safe Family Internet Usage- Keep personal information confidential. For example don't give out your name, age, or phone number.
- Get to know the services and websites that your child uses.
- Don't believe everything you read or see online.
- Encourage children to tell you about anything they find that is suggestive, obscene, threatening or makes them feel uncomfortable.
- Don't immediately blame the child if they receive or access something obscene - this may have been done accidentally.
- Use the Internet as a family activity and if possible, keep the computer in a family room rather than in a child's bedroom.
- Try to get to know your child's online friends as you would their other friends.
- Try not to use the PC or the Internet as an electronic babysitter.
- Set your own golden rules and after discussing them, stick them at the side of the computer.
- Enjoy surfing!