While I was researching Internet safety for this week’s article
Internet Safety Programs, I happened upon the FBI’s publication, A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety. At first, I was a bit annoyed that this site seemed to underestimate parents’ ability to understand their children because the site listed some vague indicators that a child could be at risk online, such as:
-Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night.
-Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
-Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.
There are several other symptoms listed, which seem much more indicative of a possible threat to a child’s Internet safety.
I suppose these warning signs offended me because my son, now 23-years-old, did these things when he was in college, exactly as quoted by the FBI, and my husband and I never once suspected he was in danger online, except of failing a test or two.
Then I realized that perhaps I was being just a bit defensive because we didn’t think that such a horrible thing could happen to a college student—someone who was, by most definitions, an adult, capable of making rational decisions about his online safety. It never even occurred to us, and I wonder how many other parents out there feel the same way.
Were we naive?
Take a look at a couple of the
Internet Safety Programs available to parents, students, and educators. I think you’ll especially like the detective-style multimedia application MISSING.
