Children's online experience can be enhanced to the advantage if parents and carers teach them how to make smart choices about surfing the internet.

• Talk to your children and be a guide to educate them about internet security and safety.
• Make your children comfortable to share their online experiences with you.
• Children get into trouble online due to too much free time and no direction when surfing the internet.  Give them safe, fun, and educational sites to visit such as Kaboose or KidGrid.
• Moniter instant messaging.   
• Spend time online with your kids. Check out good sites together.
• Encourage children to treat others in the internet the same way they should in real life by giving them an understanding of Netiquette.
• Help your children to use the internet as an effective research tool.
• Make your children aware that information on the internet is not always reliable.
• Set house rules about what information your children can give out and where they can go online.
• Advise them not to meet any one in person whom they meet online such as in chat rooms even if they seem very nice.
• Educate children about copyright, privacy policy, software piracy, hacking and obscenity.
• Educate them about good practices on posting information online including personal websites.
• Put the computer in a public area of the home, such as the living room, rather than a child's bedroom, so that you can monitor.
• If your child turns off the monitor or hides the screen, then your child is trying to hide something from you or is doing something that is not appropriate. Talk to them.
• Provide information to them based on their age, what they can assimilate and what is appropriate or relevent to them.
• For more tips on keeping your children safe online visit www.protectkids.com