Child Safety on the Internet

I shared this article with my mom tonight and her response was, where was this when you were a kid? I have put my parents through some interesting and nerve racking nights while I fully indulged in the social networking side of the Internet, back in 1996 when there was little if any information about Internet safety. Along with all the wonderful aspects of the Internet a whole new world of fears and dangers have been born. And fortunately realizing these dangers many people and companies have spent hours and resources to make the Internet a bit more safer for children. But ultimately it is up to the parents of Internet using children to give their children the tools and guidance needed to keep them safe when surfing the web.
Being an adult user with no children I have a different set of eyes when I use the Internet. It has only been through discussions in class and discussion about technology in the classroom that I have seen the vulnerability that children are at when they get on the Internet. I was grateful that there are search engines designed and developed with children in mind so that they too can surf the Internet safely. I did not realize that there was a yahoo site for children called yahooligans! or that Ask Jeeves also set up a search engine for children. I had hear about some of the kid friendly sites like starfall and I have been checking out some of the sites mentioned in this article.
As adults I think we also take some things for granted like, common sense. We were able to naturally apply our immigrant real world common sense onto the Internet. however now we have digital Natives who are using the Internet and other technology tools before they have fully developed their "real world common sense" and so teaching them "cybersense" is vital to helping them stay safe on the Internet.
There was so much information packed into this article. I am excited to share this information with future families and students and to utilize many of the checklist and tips for safe Internet use. I feel that it is vital to educate all families on how to use the Internet and not to deny children the opportunity to use it.