websense

Wow, I am sure you’ve all heard about this so called “Craig’s List Killer“. Frightening, for sure. I know we’ve all used sites like this, either Craig’s list or a local newspaper’s site to buy and sell items. What is amazing to me is that people seem to have some sort of trust in people they meet online.

There are lots of places on the web that give online safety tips, so please check them out. I think just employing some basic common sense would go a long way towards keeping yourself, and your family safe online. Craigs List has it’s own safety suggestions as well.
1. If you are selling a vehicle, or some other item, meet the person in a neutral, busy area. Take someone with you, and don’t get in the car alone with anyone.
2. Don’t try to sell personal services online, such as massage therapy or anything else. If you are offering those services, just be safe and go through a salon or other means. Build a trustworthy client list, and stick to it. That way you can ask your clients for referrals of others that they trust.
3. Follow your gut - if it feels like a bad situation, just get out of there.

I know many of you have kids who use the web, and it’s really hard to keep track of everything they do online, but watching who they are talking to is huge. It’s really horrible to read about how many young girls are loured away by dirt bags, never to be seen again. These guys know what they are doing, and how to portray themselves as young, trustworthy teens or younger guys. There are plenty of places on the web that offer suggestions on how to keep your kids safer online, but really, supervision is the only way to be sure.

One method we use with our younger kids, to keep them from just surfing the web, is to create a list in favorites, and they know they are only allowed to surf these pre-apporved sites. This is also a great way to help your pre-readers find sites without having to ask you to get them there everytime.
Because You Tube is a lot of fun, but can be pretty sketchy in the material found there, we have found a great alternative that our kids have been enjoying. It’s called Kids Tube. The site was created by some concerned folks, parents and grandparents, as a safe, fun way for kids to share and enjoy online vidoes. It’s monitored, and so far, my kids have been finding it really fun.
Of course there are always Disney and Nickalodeon, our kids seem to enjoy these, and Webkinz has taken over the planet.

Those of you with teenagers, I know it has to be a lot harder, they are all into Facebook and Myspace. It’s impossible to control the content, and hard to patrol what they post, especially if they have an ipod, iphone, blackberry, whatever. I would still say be on alert, all the time, when they are on the computer, but I would also think that making sure they know that anything they post becomes part of the web, forever, is make clear to them. Help them understand how it can affect their college and job prospects and such. http://www.safeteens.com/ is a great resource to get you started.

So, do you have a great online safety tip? I’m sure we could all benefit from a fresh idea or two - got a good one?