Make sure your child doesn’t spend all of their time on the computer. People, not computers, should be their best friends and companions.

Keep the computer in a family room, kitchen or living room, not in your child’s bedroom.

Learn enough about computers so you can enjoy them together with your kids.

Teach them never to meet an online friend unless you are with them.

Watch your children when they are online and see where they go.

Make sure that your children feel comfortable coming to you with questions and don’t over react if things go wrong.

Keep kids out of chat rooms or IRC unless they are monitored.

Encourage discussion between you and your child about what they enjoy online.

Discuss these rules, get your children to agree to adhere to them, and post them near the computer as a reminder.

Teach them what information they can share with others online and what they can’t (like telephone numbers, address, their full name and school).

Get to know their “online friends” just as you get to know all of their other friends.

Warn them that people may not be what they seem to be and that people they chat with are not their friends, they are just people they chat with.