WARNING: If someone is asking you for money in
exchange to not prosecute for any possible infractions of
the law or terms of service.
DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY. KIKS has passed information
regarding this issue over for investigation to the FBI.
The Internet, although very good and useful, is being utilized to perpetuate the evil desires of those who wish to do harm to our children. The best thing you could do for your children, in our opinion, is to give them your Love, Attention, and Trust. Many Parents/Guardians may take precautions in your own households but you
can't control your friends, acquaintances, babysitters, extended family, schools etc.. on what your children might be exposed to outside of your home or not in your presence.
KIKin' Safety Tips: Please use common sense.
1. Love, Attention, and Trust.
Love your children unconditionally (that does not mean you do not discipline them). Give children your undivided Attention (Means quantity and quality time spent with children.
Don't forget to pay attention to your spouse and loved ones too.) Trust is a two way street. Please give your children a reason to trust your words and deeds. Do not take advantage of any trust between adults and children (This does not mean you do not check up on kids to ensure their safety.)
2. Family Computer Access.
Have a common area for all family members utilizing the computer. This may prevent children from going into areas of the Internet that are not suitable and will give the adults an opportunity to monitor while children are online. The ideal situation would be to work with your children while they utilize the Internet, but we realize this may not always be an option. Please do not give your child a computer in their room and/or a web camera as to many times we see children talk in chat rooms about having pictures and even sometimes nude pics (of which we always turn into the ISP).
3. Restrictions on Computer Usage.
Most Internet providers have parental controls which limit time spent on the computer and can be useful on preventing children from accessing the computer while you work or sleep. There are also companies who specialize in parental controls and filtering software such as:
Please do not expect these or other programs to become the "parent" for you once they are in place as it has been our experience these spammers utilize many tactics to bypass filters and all it takes is once to leave an ugly impression into your childs young mind.
4. Keeping Personal Information to yourself.
Names, addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information should be carefully guarded while utilizing the Internet. When talking to others be careful what type of information you freely communicate as even the names of your schools, a church, places you visit etc.. can lead predators to stake out and localize an area which you may frequent.
We are seeing a serious rise in phone sex requests from individuals who are adults wanting to talk to 13, 14, or 15 year olds to call them. This is often solicited within the first ten minutes of the conversation.
5. What to do about vulgarity, profanity, racism, or obscene material encountered on the Internet.
Talk to your children about notifying an adult immediately if they feel uncomfortable with any material/language encountered on the Internet if you are not directly supervising their activities online. Just because your utilizing a computer and not face to face with an individual does not give anyone the right to be ugly, perverted, racist, rude etc... Show respect to others while utilizing the Internet.
6. So you want to meet your Internet Friend.
The serious problem with meeting a person from the Internet is you truly do not know the background of the person you are going to meet. They may have carefully crafted a story to entice your interest only to take advantage of you in any number of ways. That is not to say you will not find your soul mate or a good friend on the Internet. Too many times we have seen guys going after young girls wanting to meet immediately or within a short period of time, even wanting to sneak in the girls bedroom window at night.
Keep careful records of who you are talking to and if you make a decision to meet someone leave a way for others to know where you were going, who you were going to meet, and names/addresses of whom your going to meet. If your under 18 do not meet anyone off the Internet and if someone is pressuring you to meet please let an adult know immediately.
7. Passwords/Credit Card Scams.
Rule of thumb: Change your password often and do not give it out to anyone.
(Click here for examples of password scams and Bank/Credit Card theft sites)
If in ANY doubt do not respond to emails, chat room links, or instant messages that have anything to do with personal and/or bank/credit card information. Find a phone number for the company in question and talk to someone personally in order to solve any issues regarding your information.
Many scams we have seen is sending you an email saying you have been sent an ëinstakissí or ëyou have picturesí. They will ask you to put in your screen name and password which is essentially giving them access to your screen name and current password which allows them to utilize your account to make new screen names to spam or utilize your current name to spam.
8. Virus protection.
Please utilize a program which will look for spy ware and ad aware. There are also virus protection programs that are a must if you surf the Internet. This will help prevent personal information from being compromised.
Google:
Virus protection
Ad aware
Spy ware
