by Michelle Shelly

Created on: December 31, 2008

I suppose sex predators have been around for decades but these days, it seems they're ramped. Internet chat programs and social networking web sites have made it even easier for sex predators to have access to children. So how do you protect your children? This article will give you some tips on how to protect children from sex predators.

Awareness

Schools are doing a good job of this but parents need to be involved as well. Educate your children on the dangers of sex predators. Teach them to be cautious and on the lookout.Internet Access

The Internet is a valuable source of information. Many classes in today's school require students to look up information on the Internet. The Internet is the most common portal of access to your child from a sex predator. Do NOT have a Internet capable computer in the privacy of your child's bedroom. Keep the computer in a high traffic area of the home where you can look over their shoulders occasionally. Purchase a spy program for the computer they use that only YOU can access. You can program it to take screen shots in certain time intervals. You can have all of their instant messenger chats monitored. You can adjust it to keep as close an eye on your child's Internet activity as you wish. You can adjust the program to run in stealth mode so your child doesn't know it's monitoring them or you can go ahead and tell your child that it's running. Do NOT give your child administrator privileges on the computer.

Personal Information

Tell your children not to share personal information on the Internet. You'd be surprised how easy it is for the sex predator to get enough information to see your child face to face with just a tiny bit of personal information. Here's a typical scenario....Your 14 year old daughter Megan is active in school sports and often complains on her My Space blog that her parents drive her crazy and most adults don't have a clue when it comes to her. Now your daughter knows about sex predators so she just puts her first name on her My Space page, her school and her interests. She has some pictures posted of her in her tight jeans The sex predator visits Megan's My Space page often. He thinks that since she's such a avid sports fan, it's likely that she's on a sports team at Oakwood High (that she listed on her page). He Googles Megan's High school and finds photos of this years Softball and Volleyball teams. He closely examines the photos and finds Megan Johnson on the softball team. He compares Megan Johnson's softball team photo to the photos on her My Space page and BAM, he's got Megan's last name. The predator Googles Megan's full name and the name of her high school. He finds a newspaper article with a story on how Megan's father Donald Johnson organized a fund raiser to purchase new equipment for his daughter Megan's softball team. The predator searches all of the Donald Johnson names on the Internet for Megan's city. There are 5 Donald Johnson names in Megan's city but one of them lives only a mile from Megan's high school. The predator now knows where Megan sleeps at night. You don't want to know what can happen after that.

Sex predators are all over the place. No place is safe. Educate your children but keep a close eye on them too. They may not like it but the more your educate them, the better they will understand. I hope this article helped you. Good luck.

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