Internet Safety Rules: Online Etiquette for Kids_

internet safety

When children get online, what they’re mostly after is the fun side of the internet. Fun generally comes in the form of games, checking out their favorite sites and chatting with friends.

These may seem innocent enough but if left unchecked by parents, kids may start to develop negative habits from their continuous use of the internet.

In this regard, it is important to have at the very least basic internet safety rules to keep the kids’ online behaviors and habits in check.

Among these internet safety rules is having the proper online etiquette each and every time the kids access the internet and start browsing or doing their online activities with friends.

Online Etiquette in Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are the hottest things on the internet at the moment and chances are, your kids have accounts in one or more of these.

Internet safety rules in social networking sites include checking your children’s messages and comments addressed to their online friends.

Ensuring that the comments, posts and messages are in no way offensive, vulgar or objectionable can prevent online fights. Believe it or not, online fights happen everyday and these mostly occur in social networking sites.

When these online fights escalate, the kids might continue this in person which could lead to more harm.

Online Etiquette in Online Games

When kids play their favorite online games with other players in cyberspace, they could get carried away and say things that could be offensive to the other players. Worse, they might say things that could provoke a fight.

Internet safety rules in online games pretty much work the same way as posting messages and comments in social networking sites. By avoiding saying anything the other players might find objectionable, the kids can continue playing in a healthy online environment.

When the Tables are Turned

In like manner, when the tables are turned and it’s your kids who are on the receiving end of nasty messages or offensive comments; it’s important that parents let them know that the kids should immediately inform the parents instead of answering back in much the same manner.

Internet safety rules in this regard would mean telling your kids to keep their cool no matter how offensive the messages directed towards them could be. Answering back might aggravate the situation and result in the children being continuously harassed online.

The best approach is to tell the parents about these messages and then block off these friends from their social networking sites or list of players in their online games.

Internet safety rules do not only mean keeping your kids off online predators and online scams but also protecting them from being at the receiving end of cyber-bullying.

The kids on the other hand, should likewise not resort to cyber-bullying their online friends.

internet safety tips_