I am a very protective parent and more and more there are predators around every chat room and place children love to hang out looking for trouble.  You are probably wondering exactly how you can really protect your kids.  How do you know if they are into something that is very dangerous? 

While not everyone will agree with my methods there are some suggestions, first move all computers out of bedrooms and secluded areas.  Make sure you are able to monitor their internet usage.  Check their buddy list frequently, make sure that you know who is on that list, it should consist preferably of their friends from school, and other places where you can attach a face, address and name with a screen name. 

Still not satisfied?  Check the cookies on the computer to see what websites are being surfed.  This will allow you to see what everyone in the house is doing, not just the child you are watching out for.  It is important to realize however, that just because porn sites appear in the cookies does not mean the child actually went there.  How many times have you visited what you thought would be a family appropriate web site just to have massive pop up windows appear advertising various porn sites.  Carefully check out the information to see if they went to the site themselves or were potentially redirected from another site, or pop up window that appeared. 

Other ideas for those who strongly suspect problems is a keylogger.  A keylogger is a small piece of software that logs all keystrokes of the keyboard.  This is not something that will only log the child’s activities.  It will log everyone’s keystrokes.  This is very intrusive and untrusting.  If your child is old enough to realize what a keylogger is and finds it, you are likely to have a lot of problems from the child who has suddenly lost all respect for you. 

While it is important to monitor children and their internet usage, you must also realize that being sneaky is not the best method always.  At times, it is often wise and smart to teach your child about predators, and why they are dangerous.  Do not shield your child from all bad news; it is smart to let children know what potential dangers exist because you as a parent will not always be around to monitor their every keystroke or instant message for the rest of their life. 

As parents, it is important to help our kids grow up smart, healthy, and mature.  Teaching personal responsibility is always a good step towards that ultimate goal.  By telling your children what the potential dangers are, helps make them more responsible for their own actions and less likely to fall prey to the dangers of the internet.