Dictionary For Dads

We assume you all have watched Chris Hanson with Dateline NBC on television. Yes he corners the sick monsters who prey on children through the internet. The fact is these bastards are out there and we are responsible for protecting our children.

The sad truth is most of these abuse cases are not reported and these children are emotionally and physically damaged for life. Even if a child does not end up physically meeting a predator like in the show to Catch A Predator with Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC they can still get emotionally and sexually abused.

Your child can be emotionally and sexually abused through email, chat rooms,downloads and pornographic sites. As fathers you can not be so naive to think that sexual and emotional abuse can not happen to your child. So dads you need to Get Involved and Stay Informed on all aspects of your child's life.

There are many things you can do to keep your child safe. One is prohibit all internet surfing unless it is directly related to school work. Many Dads have decided this was their best course of action. There take on it was that their children were endangering themselves and at the same time are not getting enough physical activity in front of the computer. This also seems to tie in with the dilemma of the rise in cases of childhood Obesity. You do not have to be a scientist to recognize the correlation between the rise in obesity and the decrease in physical activity since the computer and electronic game industry came into effect.

Another options to protect your children on the internet is to install monitoring and/or safety programs on your home computer. These programs are out there and are advertised widely and I am not going to recommend any specific one. All of the major players out there like Microsoft, Yahoo etc... have programs that help safeguard your children. In addition you can set most browsers to prohibit sexual content and bad language.

The best option is to talk with your children. Sit them down and explain that there are dangerous people in cyberspace that are preying on children. Tell them you love them and are concerned. Devise a plan together which will safeguard them and make them an active part of the safety plan. Make an agreement with them that that they must adhere to. Children need to have a role and feel important. This is a great way to give them that role and to keep them safe. Get creative and draw a contract up with them over a bowel of fresh fruit. Discuss it, shake hands and sign it. Make a copy for them and recommend they post it next to there computer. Renew the agreement every 15 days to keep it fresh and reinforce there compliance. In addition, keep the agreements (rules) and the consequences fresh by going over them upon every contract renewel meeting. Reinforce your child's active participation in this contract regularly.

1. I will immediately tell my Dad or another adult family member when something seems weird or scary to me online.  

2. I promise never to give out my name, address, telephone number, school name or town, password, or gender when I'm online.

3. I will never meet anyone that I have met online without Dad's supervision and approval.

4. I will never respond online to any messages that use bad words or words that are scary, threatening, or just feel weird. If I see any of these things happening online I will tell my Dad immediately.

5. I will never go into a new online area that is going to cost money without first asking permission from my Dad.

6. I will never download any music that is going to cost money without getting approval from my Dad.

7. I will never send any picture over the Internet or via regular mail to anyone without my Dads permission.

I understand if I do not adhere to these internet rules I will lose my internet privileges indefinitely and will only be able to use the computer when I am directly supervised by __________________.

SIGNATURES

Parent _________________________________

CHILD _________________________________________

Contract Renewel Date ________________________________