By taking responsibility for your children’s online computer use, parents can greatly minimize any potential risks of being online.

Make it a family rule to never give out personal information - home address and telephone number - while chatting or bulletin boards (newsgroup), and be sure you’re dealing with someone that both you and your child know and trust before giving out this information via E-mail.  

• Be careful before revealing any personal information such as age, marital status, or financial information while chatting.
• Never post photographs of your children on web sites or newsgroups that are available to the public.
• Consider using a fake name, avoid listing your child’s name and E-mail address in any public directories and profiles, and find out about your Internet Service Provider’s privacy policies and exercise your options for how your personal information may be used.
• Get to know the Internet and any services your child uses. If you don’t know how to log on, get your child to show you. Ask your child show you what he or she does online, and familiarize yourself with all the things that you can do online.
• Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without your permission. If a meeting is arranged, make the first one in a public place, and be sure to accompany your child.
• Do not respond to messages or bulletin board items that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable. Ask your children to tell you if they respond to such messages advice them not to do that. If you or your child receives a message that is harassing, of a sexual nature, or threatening, forward a copy of the message to your ISP, and ask for their assistance.
• Instruct your child not to click on any links that are contained in E-mail from persons they don’t know. Such links could lead to sexually explicit or otherwise inappropriate web sites.
• Remember that people online may not be who they seem. Because you can’t see or even hear the person it would be easy for someone to misrepresent him- or herself. Thus, someone indicating that "she" is a "12-year-old girl" could in reality be a 40-year-old man.
• Remember that everything you read online may not be true. Any offer that’s "too good to be true" probably is. Be very careful about any offers that involve you coming to a meeting, having someone visit your house, or sending money or credit card information.
• A child’s excessive use of online services or the Internet, especially late at night, may be a clue that there is a potential problem. Remember that personal computers and online services should not be used as electronic babysitters.
• Be sure to make Internet surfing a family activity. Consider keeping the computer in a family room rather than the child’s bedroom. Get to know their "online friends" just as you get to know all of their other friends.