In this day and age of technology, it is so easy to find alternative means of entertainment when we as parents just have too much to do and too little time around the house.

We’ve all succumbed to the technology crutch when it comes to keeping our children occupied. How often have you thrown a DVD in, flicked on the TV, gotten out the XBox, or let your child surf on the Internet simply because you did not have the time or energy to come up with a more meaningful activity?

Yes, we’ve all done it. But consider this, when you allow your child to go on the Internet, you are effectively opening the door to them to the entire world. The only difference between this and the real world, is the Internet’s real world exists right in your living room or den. Opening your front door to the outdoors exposes your child to all of the harms and perils that exist outside. Opening your home to the Internet exposes your child to all of the harms and perils that exist outside, but brings them in. You wouldn’t let your child go outside without supervision, and you should not let them go on the Internet without the same. Using the Internet as a babysitter could be the most dangerous decision you as a parent make if you don’t do it properly.

It looks innocent and pure. Your child is sitting at the computer station or laptop, appearing interested, peaceful perhaps, happy even. But what is occurring on the laptop screen could be scary, even fatal. The fact is, children and even teenagers are too immature to understand how vulnerable they are to predatory strangers. This is as true on the Internet as it is outside of your own home. The phrase “don’t talk to strangers” loses all effect when in fact, the strangers on the Internet are much more cleverly disguised than those outside.

There is nothing wrong with letting your child use the Internet when it is used properly. It is an extremely valuable research tool and a source of educational resources. It also serves as a priceless communication tool, so that if your child has another parent or relative that lives far away they can use it to keep in touch. Using the Internet properly with your children is the key to ensuring your child’s utmost safety. Just like letting your child play outside, do so with precaution and a few guidelines. This article is going to give you some basic steps and rules for you and your children. Perhaps you can post them by the computer so that they never forget how serious this means to you. Remind them this has little to do with control and manipulation on your part, but that you are trying to keep them safe.

• Establish a spot check system where you do random checks on browser history and email contents. Make sure they know this could happen at any time.
• Set the computer up where you have access to it and can see what is on it at any time.
• Check not only browser history, but check to see what cookies have been set as well. (don’t tell them about this rule, many kids know how to delete history but don’t think to delete cookies)
• Explain to your children: no names, addresses, phone numbers, schools, or personal information is to be shared with anyone on the Internet ever without Mom or Dad’s permission
• If your child uses MySpace, Facebook, or any other social networking site, be sure you check it AT LEAST once a week

Again, these are just basic guidelines, and when coupling these with some common sense, you can allow the Internet to babysit your child. Just ensure you are there to ‘nanny-cam’ it all the way.