Here are some Safety Tips to help kids online. Talk about these tips with your family.

 

Follows General Rules

• Always follow your family's rules for the Internet - they're there to make sure you have fun and stay safe online.
  
  
• Don't ever do anything that could cost your family money unless your parents are there to help you do it.
  
  
• Tell your parents right away if you read anything on the Internet that makes you feel uncomfortable.
  
  
• The Internet is a real community of people who are connected by computers, so treat people that you don't know on the Internet as strangers that you might meet in a street.

 

Before you surf the Web, you should follow these steps in order to help improve the computer's security.

• Make sure you turn on the Internet firewall.
  
  
• Update your computer patches.
  
  
• Use up-to-date antivirus software.
  
  
• Use up-to-date antispyware software.

 

Safeguard Your Personal Information

• Don't give out information about yourself like your last name, your phone number, where you live, or where you go to school - without asking your parents first.
  
  
• Never e-mail a picture of yourself to strangers.
  
  
• Don't ever give out your password, except to responsible adults in your family.
  
  
• Don't fill out forms online without consulting your parents. There are websites which seek personal information and which use this information for commercial/malicious purposes.

 

Seek Help from Your Parent, Don't Keep it to Yourself

• If somebody says something to you, sends you something, or you see something that makes you uncomfortable, don't look around or explore; get your parents instead - they know what to do.
  
  
• Not everything you read or see online is true. You're encourage to inform your parent if you're not sure.
  

 

Managing Cyber Friends

• Making plans to meet your Internet buddies in real life is usually a really bad idea - how people are in real life can be very different from how they are online. If you decide to do it anyway, have your Mom or Dad help make the plans and go with you.
  
  
• Don't arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone you meet on the Internet without parental permission.

 

Internet and Email Safety

• Don't open up e-mails, files, or Web pages that you get from people you don't really know or trust.
  
  
• Never to respond to a message from a company asking for security information including passwords, account logons.

• Don't open e-mails from people you don't know. You should also be told to never open an attachment in an e-mail, even from someone they know, unless you have specifically requested it.