Don’t turn off parenting skills when kids go online

It is a father‘s worst nightmare and a challenge to anyone’s parenting skills – what if you discovered that a cyber-predator was communicating with your child as they browsed the internet from your own home?

With these concerns in mind, InternetSafety.com is offering some parenting advice to help keep kids safe online.

The company explains that moms and dads should select parental control software that offers the option of filtering websites by category, URL and keyword, which gives more flexibility when defining the type of content children will be prevented from accessing.

It also recommends that parents record conversations taking place in instant messaging chat rooms for potential review, as well as blocking certain programs if they become problematic.

Some software has the option of alerting parents if their children try to navigate to blocked sites or post their contact information on social networking websites, InternetSafety.com says.

At the same time, most applications allow moms and dads to limit browsing to certain hours of the day or particular days of the week, customizing the permissions for different family members.

Approximately one-third of teens who use the internet say they have been contacted by a stranger while online, according to Pew Internet Research.