I am so afraid of when my daughter becomes old enough to use the Internet. There are so many scary things happening online.

Originally Posted by fitnessk

I am so afraid of when my daughter becomes old enough to use the Internet. There are so many scary things happening online.

I think you will find yourself much calmer as she gets older.

I have the impression that your daughter is under the age of 10 right now, and so you aren't projecting into the future and aging her in your mind. As she grows up you will teach her how to be safe, just as you taught her about crossing the street.

The thing we hear about on the internet are very much the exception and not the rule because most parents take steps to create a safe atmosphere for their internet using children. You will do the same.

Originally Posted by SageMother

I think you will find yourself much calmer as she gets older. I have the impression that your daughter is under the age of 10 right now, and so you aren't projecting into the future and aging her in your mind. As she grows up you will teach her how to be safe, just as you taught her about crossing the street. The thing we hear about on the internet are very much the exception and not the rule because most parents take steps to create a safe atmosphere for their internet using children. You will do the same.

Just chiming in to say this I think this is really good advice - a lot of times, the fear of the problem is worse than the problem itself.

Sam

Start teaching your child now how to make smart choices and not to reveal any personal information to strangers. There is no way to shelter them from the real world so you have to prepare them to make the proper choices.

I agree with teaching your children the dangers of the internet. We keep our computer in the living room and closely watch the children when they are on line.

Me too! My daughter is still very young right now and the last thing I would want her to learn is use the internet. I have never let her use a computer even for games because this can be a start of her wanting to use the computer. I know I will have to face this problem one day...

My almost 11 year old is only allowed on certain sites on the internet & before she can visit a new one, I have to check it out. Right now this is working well for us, but soon she'll start going against our wishes & visiting not so good sites. She knows not to tell people online her real name & all that, but sometimes its easy to forget that when you've been talking to someone for a long time & trust them. I know because I did that in college. I had been chatting to someone for months & he asked to call me, & without thinking I gave him my number. Luckily he never came to my house because we lived in different states, but the fact remains he could have. Only now do I realize what could have happened.

It's never too soon to take precautions. We worry about this as well, but plan to monitor online time closely. Computers will be in the office/general family area, not in bedrooms. Kids should be allowed reasonable expectations of privacy, but I think that having computers in public areas is a good way to keep them from going too far astray while still giving them some space.

My DH is a computer geek so we joke that we hope he at least stays one step ahead of the kids in that department so we can monitor what they do.

We only have one computer & its in a very public area, the kitchen. There's no way for anyone to go to a site without another family member knowing. I know this because I was trying to do some Christmas shopping online last year & everyone kept bugging me about the presents I was thinking about getting. So all my online shopping is now done after the kids' bedtime.

my advice is to teach your daughter to use internet carefully and alway ALWAYS have the computer in a public area of the house so she can not chat/search for things without your knowledge. Also talk to her about what things can be found on internet and what she should do if she stumble upon something 'scary'.