- Communication is the key. Involve your kids in discussions about what content is acceptable.
- Interact with your family on a regular basis, let them know ok / fine are not acceptable answers to 'How's everything going?"
- Many things on the internet make you feel uncomfortable, talk with a parent immediately (10 minute rule) if you experience these feelings.
- Practice and role play helps to create an environment of comfort. Have your child pretend they found something inappropriate on a website, then run and tell you about it.
- Start talking with your kids at an early age. Adam explained that he's starts his conversations at an early age with explaining about our bodies and the difference between good touch / bad touch.
- Set electronic limits, with your kids input, such as when electronics need to be off and put away (dinner table, bedtime etc).
- If you're with your family and something inappropriate comes on, ask them how they felt about it. Start with telling them how it made you uncomfortable and why. Take opportunities at least 1 / month to keep the conversations of media / internet safety going.
In addition to Adam's discussion we also talked about services to control internet content and usage in your home. We touched on:
- OpenDNS
- Net Nanny
- DD-WRT
- Apple Parental Controls
- Windows Family Safety
For more information about how to implement these services go to SimplyCoding.org and navigate to the sections "Internet Safety".
Thanks, hope to see everyone in April for our class about command line and guest speaker Seth Moore from Overstock.com
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