During this era of high level Information Technology and Communication, internet has grown to become the most indispensable part of our everyday life. It allows us to share data and information globally within a fraction of second through uploading and downloading. Some of the most useful functions that we can perform through internet are social networking, communication, online shopping, sharing ideas, B2B and B2C business, online gaming, education etc. which proved to be very beneficial for every single person. Most importantly internet allows us to communicate with people at any part of the globe eliminating geographical boundaries. But unfortunately the predators who misuse the internet are also equally accessible to internet as we are. They may target young people more as they are more vulnerable to exploitation. Hence we need to educate our kids about cyber crime and online predators and taking strict precautions while judging strangers on internet. You should not restrict your kids from using internet because of the possible danger; in fact it can be highly beneficial experience for them to interact with people from different regions. Hence instead of keeping your kids away from internet educate them to use internet safely and allow them to take their own decisions as this will help them incredibly in their future. Before giving them the freedom to decide on their own you need to do one thing ‘educate them properly’.

Start by teaching your kids that all online communication with strangers should be done with great caution as it is very difficult to identify who actually they are communicating with online. You should let yours kids interact only with the people known to them or the people that you approve. Let them get the email addresses from safe sources such as the school or community club. Another thing is that even if you know who your kid is interacting to, you never know who else will be reading their email. So you need to advice your kids never to disclose their full name, address and phone number no matter how well they and the other correspondent got in touch in the first place.

Instant messaging is another area where the predators might like to target. The same rules should be applied here as well. With the upcoming of social networking site the number of people using emails and instant messaging has considerably reduced, and this does not mean that you should take chance over it. There still are many predators waiting for their prey in many of chatting hubs and messaging services. Hence it is recommended that the same precaution and safety measures should be applied every time you communicate with new people regardless of the medium you communicate with.

If you have educated your kids with the measures then you are almost done with the safety process. All you need to do now is to install a simple software to filter the internet or the web pages which will recognize and block the undesired contents hence keeping it out of reach from your kids. It is now become a safe place for your children to explore and take all the advantages that the technology can offer.