Despite some parenting advice that suggests dads and moms should always monitor their kids’ internet use, most allow them to surf without supervision, a new poll reveals.
Some 75 percent of the parents polled by Highlights for Children magazine said that they do not always watch what their children do online.
However, that may not mean they are neglecting their parenting skills. A total of 77 percent said that they have had a conversation with their kids about online safety.
Christine French Clark, editor-in-chief of Highlights magazine, told mothers and fathers that even if they trust their children to surf responsibly, it is important to set boundaries.
"The Internet is a part of children’s lives today, and indeed an exciting and useful part, but families need to stay involved and set clear guidelines to keep their kids safe," she commented.
Clark suggested that children need to be reminded that what they do online can have "real-world" consequences.
According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, despite headlines warning about children being contacted by strangers online, only 39 percent of girls and 24 percent of boys report having experienced such a situation.
Parents are talking, which is good, but the communication usually drops off after that first talk and just communicating isn’t enough. Parents need to both communicate with and monitor their kids. How can you talk to your kids about internet safety if you don’t know how they use the internet? If you REALLY want to keep your kids safe online, you need to know what they are doing on the computer. You need to know if they have several social network profiles – which, trust me moms and dads out there, it’s a lot more common than you think. You need to know what websites they go to daily and who they talk to. Blocks and filters are easy to get around. But if you have monitoring software, like our PC Pandora, you will know everything they do and will be able to talk to them about it. If you aren’t monitoring and don’t know what they are really doing, how can you be sure they are safe? How can you be sure they are using the Internet responsibly and not putting themselves into bad situations?