Did you know...?

• In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).
• Of all known child abuse domains, 58% are housed in the United States (Internet Watch Foundation. Annual Report, 2008).
• 34% of teens had unwanted exposure to online pornography, 79% of which happened at home (Wolak, Janis, et al. "Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users". Pediatrics 119 (2007), 247-257).
• 52% of teens have given out personal information online to someone they don't know offline, including personal photos and/or physical descriptions of themselves (24%) (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)
• 20% of teens have engaged in cyberbullying behaviors, including posting mean or hurtful information or embarrassing pictures, spreading rumors, publicizing private communications, sending anonymous e-mails or cyberpranking someone (Harris Interactive-McAfee 10/2008)

It's not only what children SEE in cyberspace, but what they DO online that can be harmful to their healthy development.

Safety tips for teens in cyberspace

1. Don't share provocative photos or intimate details online. They can be used against you by anybody, including ex-friends.
2. Some people act nice online so they can get something out of you, so read between the lines.
3. To avoid being the target of a predator's grooming, don't talk about sex online.
4. Avoid meeting in-person somebody you met online.
5. Don't give out your password to anyone.
6. Don't fill out any online forms without permission of your parents.
7. Set yourself a time limit to be online so you don't miss on other fun activities.

Content filters: some unresolved issues

Content filters are a must tool for parents who want to minimize their children's exposure to harmful content (pornography, extreme violence, drugs, racism, sexism, gambling, apology of terrorism, etc). Although they have greatly improved over the last years, parents need to be aware of two issues:

• Underblocking and overblocking: filters still make mistakes, that is, they miss bad content or unduly block good content.

• Web 2.0: the fast pace at which content is now posted by end users and its uncontrolled sources are a huge challenge to identifying harmful content.

Content filters are not enough to keep your kids safe in the Internet. They don't substitute education on how to stay safe, continuous parent-child communication and efficient parental supervision.