Internet Safety For Your Children & Teens

I thought this presentation from Netsmartz.org was pretty neat. I am a strict advocate for online safety against child sex predators, and its hard sometimes to get through to your teenagers; or to watch them all the time.

So teaching them what to watch out for, what dangers there are lurking, and what to do in a situation is key to online safety; this can really make a difference; pass it along.

Netsmartz Brochure In PDF format

Teen Safety On the Information Highway in PDF format

Some of the following are from Netsmartz.org – an awesome site for information on this very important topic to keep our kids safe!

Parents PSA: “Family Concern”

You think your children are safe when they are home with you. But have you thought about protecting them from the dangers of the Internet?

Play Parents PSA

“Julie’s Journey”

Julie left home for three weeks with a convicted murderer she had developed a relationship with online. Play >>

Activity Cards

• “Julie’s Journey 1” for middle school

Related News Articles

• “Generation IM”
• 12-Year-Old Girl Back Home After Ordeal
• Teen Murdered by Man She Met in Chatroom
• Online Child Molesters
• The Internet’s Underbelly
• Tragedy in Connecticut
• Search for Online Romance Leads to Fake Kidnapping

Online Victimization of Youth-5 years later (2006)

Statistical Data courtesy of Netsmartz.org

download full report

Produced in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center, this second groundbreaking national survey of 1,500 youth aged 10 to 17 documented their use of the Internet and experiences while online including unwanted exposure to sexual solicitation, sexual material, and harassment. And it includes recommendations to help make the Internet safer for children. The 2006 report is referred to as YISS-2; YISS-1 refers to the original study released in 1999.

• In YISS-2, compared to YISS-1, increased proportions of youth Internet users were encountering unwanted exposures to sexual material and online harassment, but decreased proportions were receiving unwanted sexual solicitations.
• In YISS-2 more than one-third of youth Internet users (34%) saw sexual material online they did not want to see in the past year compared to one quarter (25%) in YISS-1.
• The increase in exposure to unwanted sexual material occurred despite increased use of filtering, blocking, and monitoring software in households of youth Internet users. More than half of parents and guardians with home Internet access (55%) said there was such software on the computers their children used compared to one-third (33%) in YISS-1.
• Online harassment also increased to 9% of youth Internet users in YISS-2 from 6% in YISS-1.
• A smaller proportion of youth Internet users received unwanted sexual solicitations in YISS-2 than in YISS-1. Approximately 1 in 7 (13%) was solicited in YISS-2, compared to approximately 1 in 5 (19%) in YISS-1; however, aggressive solicitations, in which solicitors made or attempted to make offline contact with youth, did not decline. Four (4) percent of youth Internet users received aggressive solicitations — a proportion similar to the 3% who received aggressive solicitations in YISS-1.
• In YISS-2 there were also declines in the proportions of youth Internet users who communicated online with people they did not know in person (34% down from 40% in YISS-1) or who formed close online relationships with people they met online (11% down from 16%).
• Four (4) percent of all youth Internet users in YISS-2 said online solicitors asked them for nude or sexually explicit photographs of themselves.
• As in YISS-1 only a minority of youth who had unwanted sexual solicitations, unwanted exposures to sexual material, or harassment said they were distressed by the incidents. The number of youth with distressing exposures to unwanted sexual material increased to 9% of all youth in YISS-2 from 6% in YISS-1.
• Acquaintances played a growing role in many of the unwanted solicitation incidents. In YISS-2, 14% of solicitations were from offline friends and acquaintances compared to only 3% in YISS-1. The same was true of harassers. Forty-four (44) percent were offline acquaintances, mostly peers, compared to 28% in YISS-1. In addition a portion of these unwanted incidents happened when youth were using the Internet in the company of peers — 41% of solicitations, 29% of exposures, and 31% of harassment.
• As in YISS-1 few overall incidents of solicitation or unwanted exposure (5% and 2% respectively in YISS-2 and 9% and 3% respectively in YISS-1) were reported to law enforcement, Internet service providers, or other authorities.