My main concern is the chat rooms
0 Comments | Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, Apr 28, 2010 | by FAYE PRESTON
INTERNET safety is such a big issue for this Grimsby area family, they have installed special software to protect their children.
Tracey Norman, 41, lives in Habrough with her husband Carl, 48 and her three children, David Haagensen, 19, Sacha Haagensen, 18 and Olly Norman, 9. The whole family use the Internet on a daily basis for a variety of reasons – from homework, games and Tracey’s main concern, social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.
And, although Tracey and Carl trust their children to use the Internet responsibly, they recently installed software called Net Nanny for added safety.
The programme is a protection tool which allows parents to monitor the sites being used, stop certain sites from being seen and filters out pornography sites and any others with offensive content.
Because of Net Nanny, Tracey has a password to access the Internet and can even set a timer limiting the amount of time her children spend on the Internet.
Tracey believes the responsibility of using the Internet lies with the person using the computer and has taught all her children to act in a responsible manner.
She also encourages her youngest son to speak up if he sees anything he does not understand or like.
Tracey said: “The children know what is right and what is wrong when going on the Internet.
“Olly is only nine, but he knows that if anything should pop up he will always ask either myself or his father what it is and we just tell him not to click on it.
“I have a lot of confidence in my children to be able to leave them to search the net without me or my husband looking over their shoulders to see what sites they are going on.”
Despite her confidence in her children, Tracey is cautious about chat rooms and says they are intimidating to someone who does not use them often.
She added: “There are a lot of chat rooms out there, Facebook being one of them, which can be quite intimidating.
“My main concerns are the obvious – people on chat rooms pretending to be someone they are not to get children interested in talking. My children have the sense to not talk to these kind of people or to give out any information about themselves, but you cannot be with your children 24/7. “This is why you have to teach children what is right and what is wrong.”
TOP TIPS FOR INTERNET SAFETY EXPLAIN to your children how important it is not to give out personal details to online strangers.
TELL your children what information is personal – e-mail address, mobile number, school name and clubs and videos and pictures of themselves.
ENCOURAGE your children to think carefully about the information and pictures they post online.
Tell them once this is online, anyone can see it.
ADVISE your children never to believe what they see in spam or junk e-mails and to never reply to them or use them.
STOP your children from opening files from people they don’t know – it could be anything.
HELP them to understand that people can lie online and so it is better to only have friends online that they know personally.
TELL them they must never meet with up with strangers without an adult they trust.
LET your children know they can confide in you about anything they have seen or heard on the Internet that has made them feel uncomfortable or worried.