Negotiating Safety


So how do you negotiate a safe online environment? You do it by reaching understanding and agreements with the people you interact with. The people you interact with most will probably be your family and close friends, but this negotiation extends to others as your online interactions expand.

Here are some ideas for how to approach the key people in your life to reach a consensus about online safety.

Negotiating with a Spouse or Partner

Information your spouse or partner puts online can have a direct impact on you. If they place your shared address, interests, vacation schedules, photos, and so on in the public domainthrough online purchases, away messages on their e-mail, or blogging and/or social networking toolsyou should negotiate and come to an understanding with your partner about this exposure so that you both feel protected and empowered to use the Web confidently.

Negotiating with Children and Teens

Safety isn't something you do to children; it is something you do with and for children and yourself. Safety is collaborative and takes everyone's participation to maintain. Rather than take a confrontational stance in "controlling" what children do online, consider treating Internet safety as a way in which the whole family supports each other. In this way, the discussion is a great deal like the way families agree that the last one out the door will always lock it.

Younger children and teens can endorse this approach to the Internet as well, as they already know that not everything online is good, and not everyone they meet online is their friend. Understand that kids can be very distressed by what they see and read online. Every year about 20 percent of young people receive an unwanted sexual solicitation, 25 percent receive unwanted exposure to sexual material, and many more are harassed, according to NCMEC. Kids don't want exposure to negative experiences any more than adults do. So explain that the family's goal is to create a defense against these unwanted encounters.



Look Both Ways. Help Protect Your Family on the Internet
Look Both Ways: Help Protect Your Family on the Internet
ISBN: 0735623473
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 157
Authors: Linda Criddle

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