IM Rules To Live By And Protect Your Kids

One of the most favorite online activities for kids these days is instant messaging.  Parents – if you have no clue what IM is, you better educate yourself real quick!  While you cannot always keep an eye on their online activities, especially since they can instant message from any computer, you can instill in them some basic guidelines to follow to ensure that they will make smart choices while on the Internet.

Kids should be aware of the latent hazards of instant messaging and why they should be so careful when using this software.  Work with your child and establish a basic set of rules.  That way, they have a good foundation in which to act upon if they are away from you.  After all, you don’t have the only computer in town! Your children could do the instant messaging thing at school, at a friend’s house or even at the library.  Here are a few things you should do with your child in regards to IM:

Work with your child to create an instant messaging profile you both can agree with.  And if you leave the profile to your child to create, be sure to read it.  You want to ensure that there is no personal information even hinted at like phone numbers, pictures, ages, names and anything else that could give away your child’s real identity outside the internet world.  In addition, make sure that your child’s screen name is not linked with a website.

Talk with your child about the proper way to conduct themselves online. For instance, they should be respectful to others by not using rude or foul language.  In addition, instruct your child to not answer any instant messages that promote hate, dirty language or sexually explicit information.  Responding to hateful instant messages only eggs on the perpetrators.

Get to know your child’s online friends.  Kids are naïve and don’t think that some weird adult would intentionally pretend to be another kid online.  By learning who your child corresponds with online, you will get a better understanding of who they are talking about and to.  Your child should also be told that not everything is always what it seems online.  That thirteen-year-old girl who appears to be a “kindred spirit” could just as easily be a whacked out adult looking for easy prey.

Kids will bend every implied rule in the book, but if you set clear parameters for the use of instant messaging when online, they will likely do the right thing. For instance, you could institute a limit of time your child can instant message when online. Schoolwork should take first place before instant messaging and late night jaunts on the Internet should simply be barred.

Cell phones these days have instant messaging.  Do all parties a favor and simply stop the instant messaging service.  That way your child is not tempted to play around with it when you are not around to police them.

Learn about your child’s online friends. Teach them to not accept chat invitations or buddy list requests from strange people that they do not recognize. First and foremost however it should be stressed that your child should never, ever meet someone in person that they met online.

Keeping an eye on children can be tough.  And when you figure instant messaging into the equation, it’s a whole new ball game. If you keep a good line of communication open with your child, chances are that they will not think twice about informing you when they are approached by a stranger online through instant messaging or if they are being harassed.