Internet Safety

Not sure if this is in the right place... but here goes.

My daughter has just started using MSN and has been going into forums.

I realise that forums are safer than chatrooms, but I'm still concerned. Is there a serious danger on MSN? I'm not quite sure of how it works.

And if my daughter is starting to use the tinternet, how do I know she's goping to be safe?

where ever you go there is always going to be a risk. People pretend to be who they are not etc etc. Maybe limit her time and encourage her to tell you whats she's been looking at, not in a way that you are spying but in an interested way (i making sense?)
How old is your daughter?

I would limit her time hun and there are parental controls u can put onur internet - but thing is even though places put security on thier sites (i.e. hving to be over 18 to join) all u have to do is change ur yr of birth - i did it when i was 15 to make various accounts in yahoo & msn.
Plz be carfeul - i was forever getting men asking me to "have cyber sex" with them - basically talking dirty online and i got loads of men asking this!
To put it bluntly - i have met up with men i have met onlin and the first one was when i was 17 yrs old and i was actually stupid enough to get in a car with him! luckily nothing happened to me but just shows how lucky i was!
I met my partner through someone i met online but i always met them in public places and took a mate with me! but just be carfeul coz people can give out details of where they live without actually giving their address out - i.e sayiing where they go to school etc.
Im not saying to stop ur daugther from using the internet but just keep an eye! and tbh i would be asking what sites she is going on and what she is doing!
I dont mean to scare anyone but i know how easy it is to get hooked on chat rooms and it dont take much for some of the men to make u feel special! the first bloke i met said he was 20 - turned out her was 30 and married hun! So be VERY careful who ur child is talking to!

You might find some of these links useful

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=keep...nternet&meta=

My children both use msn and myspace and we have internet security and parental controls on our computer but I am always worried about their friends computers.I have always found it better to educate them on safety rather than rely on parental controls.We used an interactive cd rom called "Growing up and keeping safe" which had loads of good advice on keeping safe on the internet and also loads of other pre teen issues like puberty etc. May be worth checking out their website
http://www.sensecds.com

Good luck xxx

Thank you for those websites. I have checked them both out. You're right that cd rom looks really good so I ordered a copy, they were really helpful. Thank you for the warnings sugar I am going to show your message to my DD like you say I dont want to scare her but shee needs to know that these things happen. Thanks again everyone x

For all those using this thread as an information source there are some organisations who have a variety of tips and information on keeping children safe online. These include informtion on parental controls as well as how to teach your children about using the Internet as a very useful resource whilst identifying the dangers.

www.childnet-int.org
www.wiredsafety.org
www.iwf.org.uk

Also the department for education and skills also has a section on their site about cyberbullying that is worth looking at www.dfes.gov.uk/bullying.

Digital Parents