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Creating A Family Internet Safety Agreement
FAMILY TECHNOLOGY SAFETY AGREEMENT
It's so important to have common rules that everyone can agree on. Sit down with your children or students and talk together about ways to keep each other safe with all kinds of media.
Some items to think about:
- What kinds of activities will be allowed online? Will you allow chatting? Instant messaging? Social networking sites (Facebook)? Blogging?
- How will the rules differ for older and younger children? Does each child need their own agreement?
- What responsibilities do the adults have? For instance, "I will not overreact if my child encounters problems online."?
- What responsibilities do children/students have? For instance, "I will teach my parents about our computer and how to use different aspects of the internet."?
- What kinds of information are children allowed to give out online?
- What about meeting "online friends" in "real life?"
- Children & adults should agree to use proper "netiquette" and avoid saying hurtful things to or about others online.
For more ideas about items to include in an internet safety agreement, do an online search for examples with your children or use the ones provided below.
CREATING A FAMILY INTERNET AGREEMENT
(created by Child and Family Canada, www.cfc-efc.ca)
A family Internet agreement is a set of guidelines or rules for home Internet use. An online agreement should offer your kids very clear guidelines on the following:
- where they can go and what they can do online
- how much time they can spend on the Internet
- what to do if something happens that makes them feel uncomfortable
- how they can protect their personal information
- how to stay safe in interactive environments
- how to behave ethically and responsibly online
The key to an effective agreement is to create it with your family's input. You'll need to do some research before you get started:
- If they are already using the Internet, ask your kids what activities they like to do online? Do they enter contests or fill out surveys or quizzes? Do they download music files, games or software? Do they like chatting with people through chat or instant messaging?
- Sit with them and ask them to show you where they go and what they do online. Check out their favorite Web sites, visit chat rooms they have used, look at their instant messaging contact lists.
- Learn how they find their way around the Internet. Do they rely on hyperlinks (links to other sites), or do they use search engines? If so, which ones? Ask them why they prefer one over the other, and how they formulate their searches.
Now you can create a family online agreement based on your children's online interests and activities. Keep your agreement by the family computer as a reminder. Review it regularly and update the agreement, as your children grow older.
Sample Family Online Agreements
Joy and Stephen Smith have three children: Holly is 7, David is 9 and Justine is 14. Holly loves anything that has to do with space, and David thinks dinosaurs are really cool. There are no museums in the Smiths' small town, so Holly and David like to go to places on the Internet where they can learn more about their interests. Holly's favorite Web site is the Canadian Space Agency's KidSpace. David searches all over the Web for great dinosaur stuff, like newsgroups, Web sites and games. Justine uses the Internet for homework and chatting with friends.
Joy and Stephen both work full time, so they sat down with their kids to determine a family online agreement that the baby-sitter, Marjory, can refer to when they are not around. They have also made a separate agreement for their teenager.
Holly and David's Online Agreement
- Either Mom or Dad or Marjory has to be with us when we go on the Internet.
- We are allowed on the Web for one hour on school nights, only after we've done our homework and cleaned up the supper table. Holly gets to do the surfing Mondays and Wednesdays, and David gets to do the surfing Tuesdays and Thursdays.
- We will only use Berit's Best Sites for Children or Yahooligans! to find Web sites.
- When searching for information online we will use these filtered search engines: Ask Jeeves for Kids or KidsClick!
- We will not give out any personal information online without Mom or Dad's permission.
- Only Mom or Dad can download our e-mail. They will tell us if we have any new mail in the family mailbox.
- If we get any e-mail from a stranger, we will tell Mom or Dad right away. We won't open it without their permission.
- We are only allowed to use monitored chat rooms and Mom or Dad must be with us when we are chatting.
- We will never be rude or mean to anyone online.
- We will check with Mom and Dad before downloading software or games from the Internet.
In signing this family online agreement, we promise to follow these rules. If we break our family agreement, we understand that we will not be allowed on the Internet at all for one week.
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Justine's Online Agreement
- The maximum I can be online for fun is one hour on weekdays and two hours on weekends. There is no time limit when using the Internet for homework.
- I will not buy or sell anything over the Net without my parent's permission.
- I will tell my parents before downloading any games, music files or software from the Internet.
- I will not visit gambling sites or sites containing offensive or illegal material.
- I will not disable any filtering software that my parents have put on the computer.
- I will not open any e-mail or files from strangers.
- I will read the privacy policy of a Web site before giving out any personal information and make sure they will not share my info with a third party.
- I will only use monitored chat rooms for teens and I will stay in the public area and not go off into private rooms with strangers.
- I will only talk to people in instant messaging that I have met in person.
- I will always behave responsibly and ethically when online. I will always use Netiquette when using instant messaging, chat rooms and e-mail.
- If I ever arrange to meet an Internet friend in person, I will tell Mom and dad and one of them will accompany me for the meeting.
- I will tell my parents right away if I get into any kind of trouble or if I feel uncomfortable in any situation on the Net.
In signing this family online agreement, I promise to follow these rules. If I break my family agreement, I understand that I will not be allowed on the Internet at all for one week.
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