Internet Safety

Internet safety is an issue that raises many concerns for parents. The Internet can be a wonderful resource for kids. They can use it to research for school reports, communicate with teachers and other kids, and play interactive learning games such as Fun Brain. Children who are old enough to punch in a few letters on the keyboard can literally access the world. It is important for parents to be aware of what children are typing in different search engines because a mispelled word can lead to unwanted or adult sites that are not meant to be seen by children. It is very important for parents to be aware of what their kids see and hear on the Internet, who they meet, and what they share about themselves online. Similar to any safety issue, it is smart to talk with your kids about your concerns, take advantage of resources to protect them, and keep a close eye on their activities.

On the other hand, there is a federal law, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), was created to help protect all children when they are online. It's main feature is to keep anyone from obtaining a child's personal information without a parent knowing about it and agreeing to it first.COPPA requires websites to explain their privacy policies on the site as well as obtain parental permission before retrieving or using a child's personal information. For example, a child's name, address, phone number, or Social Security number. The law also prohibits a site from requiring a child to provide more personal information than necessary to either play a game or participate in any type of contest.

Furthermore, on a popular TV show. Dateline NBC, many online predators are caught through online chatting. This show proves that there are many children who are in fact abducted by these online predators. The independent agent workers who work with the police to catch these online predators first chat online and then agree to meet the predators at a secret location where the predators are caught and arrested. These agents pose as under age children. It is amazing to see how many predators there are nationwide that are actually willing to meet with an underage child to do unthinkable acts.