Parenting
Protect Your Child's Online Experience This Holiday Season
By
Oct 13, 2006, 23:50

(NC)-With kids out of school for the holidays, chances are they'll be spending lots of time at home on the computer.

While the Internet is a great place to learn and explore, it can also be a dangerous place for children. There are online predators looking to take advantage of your child's innocence, fraudulent vendors looking to cheat kids out of money, endless amounts of spam clogging your PC, hackers trying to break into your computer and/or infecting your computer with viruses. The list of nasty threats is seemingly endless.

Protecting our kids can often be a challenge. We can't always be monitoring their time on the computer and, let's face it, our children aren't always the best at keeping us informed of what's going on in their lives - and that includes their online experiences and adventures.

So, before the holidays begin (or, better yet, as soon as possible.), take the following steps and sit down with your family to review proper Internet usage guidelines:

. Educate your children to never talk to strangers online. If a stranger is asking them uncomfortable questions, they should log-off and notify you immediately. Also instruct your children to never share any pictures of themselves or the family with people they meet online.

. Make sure your security software, such as Norton Anti-Virus and Norton Internet Security, is updated to scan against viruses and to provide transaction security for your home computer. If you don't have security software, then do some research on the best solutions for your needs, such as asking a local retailer, going online to www.symantec.com, or approaching friends who are PC-savvy.

. Configure your anti-virus and security software to boot automatically on start-up and to run at all times.

. Tell your child to never automatically open attachments, especially if they are download attachments. Use common sense. If your child is unsure about the source of the attachment, have him delete or, at the very least, ask you for guidance.

. Scan all incoming e-mail attachments. Be sure to scan each e-mail attachment even if you recognize and trust the sender; malicious code, like "Trojan horses", can slip into your system by appearing to be from a friendly source.

. Advise your kids to avoid downloading programs from the Web. This includes freeware, screensavers, games and other executable programs. If your child does download a program from the Internet, be sure to scan each program before running it. Save all downloads to one folder, then run virus checks on everything in the folder before using it.

. Scan all your child's compact disks and hard drives before loading them on your family's PC. This is always important but especially so if your child is using the disk to carry information between school and household PCs.

By following these guidelines, there's no reason why your kids can't have a safe and enjoyable online holiday season.

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