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| ADVICE FOR TEENS
Internet privacy and security attorney Parry Aftab offers the following advice for teenagers using the Internet:
1. Think before you click.
2. Don’t think that the only people reading your page are your friends.
3. Things last online. Do you really want your parents, your principals or your future bosses to read what you’re posting online? You are judged by what you post.
4. Don’t post any pictures online.
5. Don’t do anything to others that you wouldn’t want done to you.
6. Protect your password.
7. Never open an attachment from a stranger without scanning it for viruses.
ADVICE FOR PARENTS
Aftab’s advice for parents in regards to monitoring teenagers online:
1. Don’t panic.
2. The issue is parenting, not technology. It’s teaching right from wrong. You once told them to come straight home after school, she said. Now tell them not to hang out too much online or something bad could happen. Limit their time online.
3. Look at their posted pages – and let your son or daughter know that you reserve the right to look at them. Ask them if they have a public page, such as MySpace, and then tell them you will look at it in 24 hours. When you see it, ask yourself, “Is it provocative? Hateful? Disrespectful? Have they crossed the line?” If they haven’t, use this as an opportunity to learn about your kid. If it is provocative, ask them to take that section down, and then keep an eye on the site.
4. If your son or daughter is unwilling to show you their site, google your teen’s name, their school, their e-mail address, cell phone number and screen names. You’ll find what other people are doing with their information.
5. Monitoring has to be used in the right way. For someone 10 and under, read everything. As soon as they’re 12 and up, they have relationships that they’re entitled to keep private. Parents shouldn’t read those things. Still, monitoring should be put on the computer, just in case something happens. It’s similar to a hidden camera in a bank. It comes in handy if there’s a break-in. There’s a place for it, as long as you don’t’ read it until you have to. But your kids have to trust you not to read it.
-THNT/TEEN SCENE
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