Show Your Support and Promote Child Internet Safety by Ordering These Fabulous Child Internet Safety Items

Show kids the importance of Internet Safety by ordering these new Child Internet Safety Items. Items include T-shirts, mugs, and tote bags! All items have a powerful message for kids imprinted on them. Get yours today!

Protecting Our Children from Internet Predators Cafe Press Shop
My Cafe Press shop is located toward the middle of the page.

My other website contains a huge amount of Child Internet Safety items. For those items, visit this link:
Tina's Child Internet Safety Site - Cafe Press Shop





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Create Your First Lens at Squidoo

I love Squidoo!

Have you heard of Squidoo? It is a community that allows users to make interesting pages (lenses). When we create a lens, we are called "lens masters" and let me tell you, it is a blast! We can even earn 50% of the revenue made by our lenses, and you don't even have to know anything about HTML. Squidoo is an absolutely wonderful, and supportive community of people and once you make your first lens, you will be hooked!

Why don't you head over there right now - Just click below the image. You will be glad you did.

 

Squidoo 

Child Internet Safety Definitions

Your Guide to Understanding Child Internet Safety Terms

Gain awareness by understanding these common Internet Safety terms

  

Internet Predator 

• An adult who uses the Internet to exploit children.
•  It is usually for a sexual purpose. 
• They frequent chat rooms and social networking sites looking for children they consider an easy target. 
• Targets boys and girls of all ages.
• Once they have found their target, they start the "grooming" process.

 Child "Grooming"

• The process of manipulating a child and befriending them in order to draw them into a sexual relationship.
•  Includes praising the child, giving them money and/or gifts, showing them sexual images, touching them and seeing how they will react, harassment, threats, and any other aggressive behavior.
• Can involve grooming the parent by gaining their confidence.
• A Federal offense.

Chat Rooms

• A place where people go to communicate by sending text messages. 
• The user can choose a "shared interest" room.
• Used for talking with multiple people, although, private chats are available.
•  Chat rooms may or may not be monitored. 
• Some messaging services allow users to exchange photos, often sexual, which they may be prosecuted for.
•  Users also choose chat rooms to experience cybersex.
•  Predators frequent these chat rooms looking for their prey.

Online Identity or User Names 

• The social identity that we use for online communication.
• Real names can be used or we can remain anonymous.
• May be stolen by other users.
• Can follow us around for a long time, so protect it.

Social Networking Service

• An online service or site for people to interact and share information and interests.
• A place to connect with friends.
• Users can interact with email or instant messaging.
• Uses profiles with privacy controls.
• Can be used in personal promotion.
• Increasing in popularity as a great place for business promotion.

Cyber Bullying

• Harming other people through use of the Internet.
• Involves instant messaging, email, chat rooms, web sites, forums, or digital messages.
• Warning signs include: withdrawal from family and social activities, child is often anxious or sad, declining academic performance, and being upset after being online or using their cell phone.

Internet Predators: Are We Giving Them Easy Access to Our Children?

What is the most popular method a sexual predator now uses to search for potential victims? If you guessed the Internet, then you are correct. Chat rooms and open forums are now the preferred "online hunting grounds" of predators. It is estimated that 20 percent of children who use chat rooms have been approached by a pedophile. However, only one out of four ever tell a parent that they were approached.

Children as young as five or six years old are playing online games which can enable them to interact with other players around the world, but only 50% of those children are being supervised. It can seem harmless to let our children play these games but pedophiles are also attracted to these gaming communities.

Predators are always looking for a way into our children's lives. They educate themselves with what is current in the music and movie industries, and then the majority of them make themselves comfortable in social networking sites, obsessed with finding ways to capture our child's attention.

So many kids have been sent sexual material across the Internet, and have been extremely disturbed by it, yet they don't always mention it to their parents. Children have been threatened and harassed, and they are  afraid. Studies among teens have revealed that many of them have considered meeting someone they have only met online, while a small percentage of those have actually had a face-to-face meeting that their parents were not aware of, despite our countless warnings.

We have to let pedophiles know that we will not tolerate their behavior, but how do we do that if our kids are not confiding in us? There are times that we may have to take a more assertive approach, especially if we see any behavioral changes in our children. It can be as simple as moving a child's computer from their room to the family room, to monitoring  who they are communicating with, by using  programs such as, PC Tattletale or PC Pandora. We have to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe.

Tina Mahan
March 3,2012

Note: For monitoring software such as PC Pandora or PC Tattletale, see my "products" section.
Do you know the warning signs of a child in trouble? You may want to read my newest article at Ezine.
A Parents Guide to Recognizing the Signs of a Child in Trouble.