As a  parent, it is going to be your job to make sure that your child is protected in any situation that they might be in. It can often be hard to make sure that your child is protected, but with a bit of knowledge and help, you can insure that even when your kids aren’t around you, they are making good decisions and are protected.

Protecting your children online is a big chore, but it is very important. Nearly anyone can get access to your child online if they aren’t protected, so you want to be sure that you are doing all that you can as a parent. As a parent you must intially make sure that you child does not have a computer which is unprotected. Your family computer and computers which your family can access should all have parental control.  You can set levels of controls on these computers, so that passwords are needed to travel to sites that are not safe sites. With the highest level of controls, the parents can set the specific sites that their kids can visit, and their children cannot visit any other sites without a password. That way, parents can control where their children are online.

It is also key for a parent to monitor their child when they use the Internet. Your child should not have a password that you don’t know, and you should be checking up on what they are doing. Some might consider this a violation of privacy, but you need to explain to your children that when it comes to the internet they cannot have privacy as children.  You can check up on what they are doing and make sure that they aren’t getting into a dangerous situation.

By far the most important part of protecting children online is to make sure that you are educating your children about the dangers of the internet. This is important because even if you have very strict controls at home, kids will always have the chance to go online some where else. At a friend’s house, or even at school, they might find ways to be on sites that you don’t want them to be on. So, you need to be sure that you teach them about how to be safe online.

Explain to them that anything they put online – pictures, words, phone numbers or addresses, is something that can be seen by everyone in the world. Talk to them about the dangers of talking to people online, and chatting with people they don’t know. Help them see what the dangers are, so that they can make good decisions about being online when you aren’t around. This will help you protect your children online in the greatest way, because it will help them get lifetime knowledge to continue to be safe.