Social networking sites and online chat programs allow your kids to play games, share pictures and send messages to their friends. Unfortunately, these sites may also allow online predators to interact with your children. To protect your children from online threats, start by determining where they have posted profiles on the web. Knowing where to find these profiles allows you to monitor their activity and gives you more control over who they come in contact with on the Internet.
Step 1
Ask your children about their online profiles. Talk to them about the risks of online activity, and explain to them why you want to know about their Internet use. ABC News recommends giving them a day or so to clean up these profiles before requiring kids to show them to you. Sit down and look at each profile together and discuss what type of information is safe to share and what isn't.
Step 2
Perform a few searches of each major social networking site. Go to the site's main homepage, then use the browse or search features to find your child. Try searching under your child's name, as well as her school, age, location and hobbies. These searches will help you uncover profiles your child may have opened using a nickname.
Step 3
Look on each of these sites for profiles belonging to your child's friends. Often, these pages include links to other users that this child interacts with on the site. Look for profiles that may have been created by your child.
Step 4
Search the history function in your web browser. Click on the "Tools" or "Settings" feature and explore the history of sites that have been visited on your child's computer. Look for names of social networking sites, then confront your child if you suspect that he may have profiles on these sites.
Step 5
Explore the "Cookies" and "Temporary Internet Files" folders on your child's hard drive. Look for any cookies or files that include the names of popular networking sites, then ask you child about why she's accessed these sites.
Step 6
Check your child's phone. Many kids use cell phones to access networking sites. Look for applications or Internet history that shows frequent visits to social networking sites, then talk to your child about these sites.
Tips and Warnings
- Emphasize to kids that anything they put online is there forever, even if they remove or delete it. Talk to them about consequences related to college, future jobs and safety. For maximum protection, invest in computer monitoring software that allows you to view all of your child's Internet and computer activities. While you may be able to search the more well-known networking sites, you may not always be aware of the latest trends. These monitoring programs keep you aware of your child's actions no matter how much time he spends on the web.
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