BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — Parents can help keep children and teens safe online by paying attention to where they go and what they see, experts say.

Donna Wenstrup said she started tracing her 14-year-old’s Internet activity on their computer after learning how at a session on Web safety at Bloomington Hospital.

“It’s nice to know about going back into past history,” Wenstrup said.

Parents also can set rules for surfing, Jackson Creek Middle School media specialist Kris McGlaun said. Parents can require that their kids only go online when they’re around. They also can place the computer in an area frequently used by the family, such as the living or dining room

McGlaun and Carey Beam of Bloomington Hospital presented the recent program.

Parents should get to know the electronic world frequented by their children by playing the same games and using the same media, including e-mail and text messaging, McGlaun said.

Parents also can use filters such as Cybersitter or Net Nanny that restrict Web sites and hours the Internet is used, but Beam said there are disadvantages — some filters can block educational or medical sites.

Beam said parents base their decision on how much privacy to allow a child by thinking about what age they would allow a child to talk privately on the phone.

McGlaun also cautions students about their online behavior, warning them not to give out personal information such as addresses or post photographs of themselves on the Net.

A survey commissioned by Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that 61 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on a social networking site, and half have posted pictures of themselves.

Seventy-one percent have reported receiving messages online from someone they don’t know, and 45 percent have been asked for personal information by a stranger, the report said. Thirty percent have considered meeting someone that they’ve only talked to online, and 14 percent have met such a person face-to-face.

It’s all right to be nosy to protect children, McGlaun said, noting that “there’s no right or wrong.”

Posted 7/9/2007