It's never too early to foster open and positive communication with children. It's a good idea to talk with them about computers and stay open to their questions and curiosity. As they get older, keep talking with them about their online lives, friends, and activities, just as you would about other friends and activities.

As rule, you should keep Internet-connected computers in an open area where you can easily supervise your kids' activities and you should have a clear list of Internet house rules with input from your kids.

Here are some general safety tips to consider when you supervise children’s online activities, no matter their age:

Personal Safety

• Teach your kids to always come to you before giving out information through e-mail, chat rooms, message boards, registration forms, and personal profiles. If a site encourages kids to submit their names to personalize the Web content, help your kids create an online nickname that gives away no personal information.
• Encourage your children to tell you if something or someone online makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened. Stay calm and remind your kids they are not in trouble for bringing something to your attention. Praise their behavior and encourage them to come to you again if the same thing happens.
• Insist that your kids never agree to meet an online friend.
• Use family safety tools to create appropriate profiles for each family member. For more information, see Windows Live OneCare Family Safety or Windows Vista Parental Controls.

Inappropriate Content

• Use e-mail filters to block messages from particular people, or those that contain specific words or phrases.
• Consider using online activity reports from MSN Premium or other services to show what sites children are viewing. Or investigate Internet-filtering tools (such as Windows Live OneCare Family Safety) as a complement to parental supervision.
• Help protect your children from offensive pop-up windows by using the pop-up blocker that's built in to Internet Explorer. You can also help block pop-up windows that appear when you're not surfing the Internet with Windows Defender.

Copyright

• Teach your kids not to download software, music, or files without your permission—they might unknowingly download spyware or a computer virus. Also teach your kids that file-sharing and taking text, images, or artwork from the Web may infringe on copyright laws.

Social Networking

• Talk to your kids about social networking Web sites such as Windows Live Spaces, MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, and others. If your children are under the recommended age for these sites (usually 13 and over), do not let them use the sites.
• Talk to your kids about responsible, ethical, online behavior. They should not be using the Internet to spread gossip, bully, or make threats against others.

Family Contracts

Kids of all ages thrive on routine and transparency with regard to rules and expectations, even if they do not agree with them at all times. Inconsistency is something that most children cannot tolerate from parents, whether it’s a sibling getting to do something they are not allowed to, or suddenly having a privilege revoked with no explanation. From the moment your children become interested in the Internet it’s a good idea to have a clear code of conduct for the family that all family members can agree on and respect.

Even if your children are older, it’s not too late to sit them down and explain that you dropped the ball on keeping them safe online, and would like to discuss their online usage now so as to make sure they stay safe. A family contract, perhaps tailored to each member of the family by age, can assist you in this discussion. 

Available on this website is a family code of conduct contract that you can use for each of your kids. Feel free to copy this contract, revise the rules as necessary for your family's needs, and print this contract for your personal use. (See Resources section at the top of this page)

After the terms of your family Internet usage contract are agreed upon and signed, consider posting these contracts next to each computer in your house to remind everyone of the family Internet rules.

Note to Parents about Posting Photos Online

There are benefits as well as safety concerns in putting pictures of children on a website. For example, children and teenagers will be very excited to see a photo of themselves displayed on the Web.

However, there are safety concerns to consider:
Placing photos on the web opens you or others portrayed in the photograph up to potential dangers such as from those wishing to exploit young people.

The key safety concern is photos that have been put online may be altered and distorted. This could range from an image being altered in an unflattering way as a cruel joke (common with online bullies), morphed with another image to misrepresent or mislead or even used to create pornography.

Consider the following before posting photos:

• Appropriateness of the photo: If you decide to post photos online, it is important to be careful about how the individuals in it are portrayed.
• Limit information accompanying the photo: Posted photos should not be accompanied with any information which might allow the individual child to be identified.
• The issue of contactability: Individual contact details for children, especially email addresses and phone numbers should never be given out on a website.
• Permission to Use Photographs: Parental permission should be obtained before publishing any photographs of children on the website.
• Private access: Consider using a photo-sharing package that offers password or other security protection. Some websites, for instance, create online photo albums that aren't visible to the public, and you can even choose the specific albums that you want to allow your friends and family to view.
• Check the legal requirements: Many countries have regulations in place for the protection of ‘data’ which are relevant.

Report Inappropriate Content or Communications

Remember there is a reporting link on every page of this website at the bottom left. If you encounter child pornography or any activity related to, inappropriate e-mailing or the sexual exploitation of children on or offline, you can report it.