The Awareness Advisor

Internet safety is the topic of discussion at the Winston-Salem Journal, but instead of focusing on a shadowy Internet predator, the article focuses on the need for parents and social networking sites to keep underage kids from dishonestly representing themselves and using false information to gain access to an adult chat room.

We hear every day about the dangers of social networking, and about online predators who take advantage of kids. But what Meisan Lim makes clear in this piece, is that kids are just as likely to engage in dangerous Internet behavior, particularly in joining sites like Myspace under false pretenses.

Al Kush, the deputy executive director of Wired Safety, explains that there are "documented documented cases of 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds signing up as 21-year-olds" and using their fake identities to get into a chat room, get access to adult content, and potentially meet up with an Internet predator.

Clearly this offers a new take on Internet safety; at least half of our energies should be focused on keeping an eye on kids. And, as the article explains, that isn't a job that should be left entirely to social networking sites. Internet safety should hinge on parents who "monitor their children's digital lives."

But for many working and busy parents, keeping their children out of an adult chat room and away from an Internet predator requires more time and energy than they have at the end of the day.

Thankfully, parental control software can help parents with just such a dilemma. A good parental control software system, like Awareness Tech's WebWatcher, allows parents to choose from website blocking, website recording, email recording and chat room recording features. And WebWatcher is the only parental control system that allows parents to check on their child's Internet use from a remote location, making it just as easy for busy and working parents to look out for their kids.