Great Websites About Internet Safety for Parents

1. Netsmartz: This is an informative website designed for parents, educators, and students. For parents, the topics are divided into different kinds of technology and issues: blogging, cell phones, children as victims, cyber-bullying, email/IM/chat rooms, file sharing, gaming, identity theft, inappropriate contact, internet safety, predators, revealing too much, sexting, social networking, and webcams. Although this site was created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, it goes far beyond predators. Netsmartz also has some great videos, including 15 videos for just for tweens. Check out Six Degrees of Information, where an expert finds out as much as he can on individual teens in six clicks.

2. Although it's from Disney's website, Walt Disney's Internet Safety gives a succinct but helpful overview of Internet safety for parents. The tips emphasize communication with children. I liked the reminders to parents to read up on the parent or privacy sections on websites or social media; there may be options they don't know about. An interesting idea is to print out a contract to use with children.

3. The article Ten Simple Steps for Internet Safety stresses that good internet habits develop young, such as: asking to use the internet, explaining what an ad is, knowing the right "starter websites" for kids, bookmarking sites with high learning potential, and limiting sessions. These habits can carry over to older kids, especially if communication between parent and child is an ongoing conversation.

4. The Family Online Safety Institute is a whole site devoted to parent education about internet safety. There's a great overview video called "What Can Parents Do?" The site posts a family internet contract, and links to hotlines to report inappropriate content

5. Parents should monitor their children's online activities, but what if they don't understand the Internet themselves? This website, Learn the Net, starts with absolute basics like surfing the web, and even has a quiz at the end. Parents who are savvy with their own computer use are better able to monitor their children's use.

6. There are tons of YouTube videos and a few podcasts about internet safety for parents. Some favorites: Internet Safety: A Parent's Guide with Mr. Arturo Trejo (funny overview for parents of elementary school kids, created by PBS); Internet Safety for Middle School Parents, and The Internet Safety Podcast (which has over 50 episodes about various subtopics on internet safety).

7. On a more academic level (perhaps to educate yourself before educating parents), this article advocates a protective stance. Notable points are that the Internet is an opportunity, not a right; that 1/3 of teens and 1/6 of tweens have been victims of cyber bullying; to educate kids about exchanging personal information for "perks" on a game; and that filters may be complicated for parents to understand.

Olagunju, Amos O. "Harmonizing The Interests Of Free Speech, Obscenity And Child Pornography On Cyberspace: The New Roles Of Parents, Technology And Legislation For Internet Safety." Online Submission (2008): ERIC. Web. 28 Mar. 2014.

8. PC Magazine offers an overview of different kinds of filters parents can use to monitor internet use, categorizing filters into hardware-based protection, mobile parental control, social network safety, and "just plain spying."