Tweens Online: Do You Know What Yours is Doing?

Recently, a highly-anticipated survey on tween (children ages 8 to 12) Internet safety was released. You can Google the survey online and find detailed results but there are a few results that I want to address here:

Of the roughly 500 11-12 year-olds that participated, 34 of 500 participants across the US and you get a LOT of underage kids on social networks.

Why is this important to know…?

Because another statistic from the survey shows that 29 of them keep the messages to themselves, and 11 percent of 8-10 year-olds tell Mom and Dad a lot/everything, versus only 69% of 11-12 year-olds.

More Internet time broods more confidence in Internet savvy… and thus the personal firewall comes down. This is the start of the whole "teens think they have all the answers" phase… and it's the start of kids engaging in risky and potentially dangerous behavior.

The results of the survey show that kids are signing up for social networks in droves, even when they are too young. They are indeed being approached by strangers and in some cases chatting back. And as they get older, have more online time put in, and start joining social networks, they stop telling their parents about their online activity.

These are reasons why parents need to be monitoring their child's Internet activity. What surprises me is that this simple action is the easiest and most effective answer to the Internet safety dilemma. I have yet to come across a parent that took advantage of parental control tools or monitoring software and found themselves in a dire situation concerning their child and the Internet.

The answer is right there: monitor Internet activity. Use parental control tools and monitoring software like PC Pandora. Programs like PC Pandora will record all user activity and give parents the knowledge they need to be an effective 21st century parent. Snapshots of screen activity are recorded, as well as emails, IM chats, and usernames and passwords to social networking sites. You can even use it to block websites you don't want your child spending time on. That's just the start; PC Pandora can do so much more… It truly is Internet-parenting made easy.

With full knowledge of your child's activity comes the power to keep them safe, and the chance to teach them about proper behavior in the fantastic world known as the Internet. If your child is talking to strangers or involved in cyberbullying, visiting sites you don't approve of or illegally downloading music or movies, you will know - if you are using parental control and monitoring software like PC Pandora that is…

Monitoring Internet activity is not "spying," as some critics would like to make you think. There is a big difference between being a well-informed and involved parent and thinking you know what's going on in your child's Internet life, when really you have no clue. It's not snooping; it's being an effective and responsible 21st century parent. If you're not using parental control monitoring software or monitoring the Internet activity of your child in some way - How can you really know what they are doing online? Do you really know if they are safe or not?