Progeny, 'Puters, and Pervs

My son is 7 1/2 and pretty innocent as far as I can tell. He's a lot more innocent than I was at that age but I had older siblings who were well versed in colorful language and skillful in the ways of wrongdoing. For example, I have several boxes of children's books I saved from when I was a kid. Ryan and Steph were reading one together the other night and my wife stumbled with a word. Then she started to smirk. She showed me the evidence of my rebellious childhood: I had changed a letter in the word "shut" and tried to cross out the entire word with a black marker. I have other examples but I'll save the rest of my dignity.

I became very scared, angry, and nervous last summer when I heard of a couple boys that had just moved into the neighborhood were attempting to share their booby magazines with some of the other local children. We warned Ryan as best we could to stay away from anything or anyone strange and to come home immediately if he felt uncomfortable about something. Those situations we can manage for the most part because he's smart enough to keep himself from danger and we can observe who's in the neighborhood and what's going on.

My big concern is when he's at the computer. He doesn't spend a lot of time on there but when he does he's usually on the Internet visiting sites like nickjr.com, noggin.com, or playhousedisney.com. We've setup favorites for him so he doesn't have to type it all out and make a mistake. So far, we've had no problems with him on the computer.

However, I work in the web industry and I know how things work. You innocently click on this flashy thing and then that thing over there and eventually, BOOM!, you're glaring at an advertisement with a pair of double D's staring back at you. Clicking on those... I mean it, the advertisement, would take you to an e-world filled with enough visual stimulation to make you want to cancel your cable television.

That's what I'm afraid of. He'll be lured by the siren's song of a neat picture or a cool link and then he's off in Skinland with his innocence exposed to a whole new world of debauchery and hedonism.

This has prompted me to think about how we, as parents, are going to protect our children from the scum of the Internet. Here are some ideas I have:

• Keep the computer in a central location and easily visible. He doesn't need his own computer in his own room.
  
• Setup bookmarks he can click on in the Link Bar so he doesn't have to type in the address
• Spend time with him showing him what to click on but also let him do a little exploring on his own when he feels comfortable.
• Establish his own account on the computer (which he has) and work with the security settings that will block sites that contain inappropriate content.
• Use a browser like Firefox that blocks pop-up windows. I'm pretty sure you can also block images or advertisements from different sites.
• If he gets into IM-ing, use a program like Trillian that logs IM conversations. Establish up front that you'll be reading those from time to time. Ryan is seven so I don't think I'll have to worry about IM-ing just yet. I plan on setting him up with an account so he can practice messaging me during the day. Same with email.
• As he gets older and does more with the web, explain some of the dangers of using the Internet and the importance of not sharing personal information with anyone.
• Make sure if he's filling out information online or subscribing to a site or service that his information will be kept secure and not sold or given to other companies or individuals. Check/uncheck the boxes not to receive any additonal emails. Keep him off the spam lists as much as possible.
  
• Look at some parenting web sites that go into a lot more detail about helping your kids safely get online.

If you have any other good ideas, feel free to comment and post them here.