Concerned about your children’s online safety?

(Cross posted from Windows 7 Australia blog)

If your children use the Internet at home, you already know how important it is to help protect them from inappropriate content and contact. The Internet opens a new world of information, socialising and entertainment for children - but it also presents new risks - such as predators, information disclosure, exposure to inappropriate content... the list goes on...

From recent research conducted by Microsoft this year, we know we are not doing enough to educate and protect our children; few parents even discuss online safety with - yet children as young as six are viewing unsavoury material online, chatting to strangers and handing over personal details.

The Parental Controls features contained in Windows 7 can help you create a safer online environment for your children without invading their privacy or breaking trust. The features enable you to set appropriate limits on game playing, web browsing, and overall computer use so you can easily monitor and manage your children’s web activity – but there are also some simple steps that you can take to increase online safety and awareness in your home;

1.    Open Communication: Encourage your children to tell you if something or someone online makes them uncomfortable or threatened. Talk to other parents too so that you are all acting together to improve online safety. Especially with your teens - discuss online lives - friends, events and happenings - the same way that you talk about the off-line world. Get online and check out the sites that they are visiting - see who they are talking too and encourage them to use monitored chat rooms;

2.    Open Planning: Keep internet-connected computers in an open area of the house where you can easily supervise your children’s online activity and if your children are under 10, always sit with them when they are online ;

3.    Rules and Responsibilities: Set clear rules as a family for internet use at home. Teach your children to be responsible online with what they do and with how they communicate - the internet should not be used to spread gossip, bully or threaten others. Downloading programs and files from the web without permission may infringe on copyright laws and can be illegal - so encourage them to seek permission first;

4.    Protect Yourself: Insist that your children not share personal information such as their real name, address, phone number, or passwords with people or sites that they encounter online. If a site encourages your child to submit their name to personalise web content, help them come up with a nickname that won’t give away personal information;

5.    Filtered Fun: Use family safe tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member and help filter the internet. You can also protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that’s built in to Internet Explorer 8 (IE8);

6.    Monkey See, Monkey Do: All family members should act as role models for younger children who are just starting to use the internet;

7.    Families Online Together, Stay Together: If your child/ teen is on a social networking site – such as Facebook, get online and friend them so that you can see who they are talking to and what they are doing – and vice versa! For older teens – this can be hard, but often you can suggest another family member such as a cousin to link in with them so that can let you know if something is not right;

Stay safe and happy surfing!

Stuart Strathdee,Chief Security Advisor, Microsoft Australia

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