by Frances Laing

Created on: June 17, 2009

Keeping your child safe on the Internet means putting your (probably hard won) parenting skills to work in a fast moving world. How you introduce your child to the Internet and what you allow them to do with Internet technologies will ultimately depend on the age of your child and your parenting style.

Think of it like this: When your child was young and just starting to walk you had to teach them what cars were and how to cross the road safely. In lots of ways, dealing with the Internet is no different. We're simpy handling a different type of technology here. Your family need to know that Internet technologies can be helpful, exciting and interesting, but they also need to learn how to use them wisely and what the dangers are. If you suddenly rush out into the middle of a busy highway without looking both ways you're taking unneccessary risks. So bear the following points in mind:

Get up to speed with the Internet yourself

One of the best ways of keeping kids safe on the Internet is becoming familiar with it yourself and making sure you know how to use things like social networking sites, blogs, chat rooms, micro blogging sites like Twitter, computer games and the whys and wherefores of podcasting. So dive in there, get up to speed and if you don't feel confident with about it, get yourself along to an evening class. Read the 'digital technology' section of your local newspaper once in a while. This will help you to keep up to date on how the laws on new media are changing. Of course you can also ask your kids questions and get them to teach you! At it's best the Internet is about communication and experimentation.

You will also need to wise up and stay informed about website terms and conditions, how to use passwords, email, Internet security for your personal computer, anti-virus software and the basics of firewalls. It's useful to know something about the legal aspects of the Internet too - things like basic copyright law and rules on privacy. Make sure you understand what 'libel' is. If you or your child are writing on chatrooms or blogging it can be really easy to say something you'll regret later. Remember that writing anything on the Internet generally means that you're writing something which will be sent out into the world, it's a public act and it should be treated with respect.

Read the 'digital technology' section of your local newspaper once in a while. Of course you can ask your kids questions and get them to teach you! And yes, you

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