Safe Kids

You wouldn't put your child unsupervised in the middle of a city, would you?" asks Susan Grant, a National Consumer League vice president for Public Policy and director of its Internet Fraud Watch. "The Web is like that city." And it has a dark side.

Kids can come across malicious marketing, harassing e-mail, invasion of privacy, fraud, and hacking on the Internet. They may even encounter--or, out of curiosity, seek out--pornography and gambling sites.

The FBI's statistics show that "in 1996, [the agency] investigated 113 online child pornography and sexual exploitation cases," says Angela Bell, a spokesperson for the FBI. "Last year it had more than 1500."

Even though that's a mind-bending 1200 percent increase, your family isn't defenseless. Nor is the statistic a reason to panic. The Internet is still a great resource for your child's schoolwork research, keeping in touch with friends, and playing online games.

Through my own experience as a father of a 15-year-old girl and with the help of academic researchers, child-advocacy experts, law enforcement officials, and other parents, I've gathered 23 ways to keep kids safe on the Net.

"There's no magical cocoon that you can put your child in to protect them from bad things," says Grant. "It takes effort on your part."

Start Smart

Before monitoring your children's online activities or enforcing rules on their Web access, think about what you need to accomplish and consider the consequences. Bear these points in mind:

Maintain trust. Overprotecting your kids might convey that you don't trust them. Make sure your kids understand your intentions for watching over them.

Respect privacy. Kids have a right to privacy as long as you know they're safe. While you should keep tabs on their online habits, exercising too much authority can be construed as spying, which can lead to family conflict. Balance your supervision and think about how your kids might react.

Be realistic. Understand what your kids are exposed to both online and in the real world. To determine what you allow them to see on the Web, think about the music they hear and the movies they see. Be clear on each other's expectations.