Children’s Rules for Online Safety (PDF)
The Kutztown Police Department crime prevention program offers the “CYBER’ Rent” Internet safety training for parents, teachers, students, and civic groups. For more information or to schedule a training contact Ofc Walt Skavinsky at 610-683-3545 ext. 345 or via email at wskavinsky@kutztownpd.org.
Some Call it Cyberspace, Others call it the information Superhighway by any name its still the Internet. Children need to learn “street smarts” on the Internet to safeguard them. Placing a computer with Internet access in your child’s room and not monitoring their access, is like dropping them off on a busy street corner and telling them to “go make friends”.
Chat rooms, for instance, may be a place to exchange ideas and make new friends, or they can be used as a hunting ground for sexual predators.
Downloaded files may delight and entertain computer users with graphics, games or helpful software-or they can contain messages of hate, child pornography, or bomb-making recipes.
Email and instant messaging can be used for business or to maintain contact with distant friends and relatives – or it can be used to harass and annoy innocent victims via “mail bombs”, cyber-stalking or Spam.
Children and young adults need to be educated on the dangers of the Internet. Resist the urge to conclude that the Internet is simply too dangerous and you should just “pull the plug”. The Internet is neither inherently good nor bad. Like any other technological tool it can be used for positive or negative purposes. In today’s technology oriented society, young people need to developed computer and Internet skills to be competitive in school and the job market.
