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Internet Safety for High School Kids Tips

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Essential Internet guide

Can I friend you?

  • 55% of online teens have a social networking profile on sites like Facebook or MySpace
  • 64% of online teens engage in some type of content creation, like blogging
  • 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online, like videos
  • 47% of online teens have posted photos where others can see them
Advice and Answers

Tips for keeping your child safe online

1 Tell your kids:

  • to make sure personal information like their name, school, age, or address is protected by privacy settings
  • to use social networks privacy settings so only their friends can see their stuff
  • they should never send pictures to strangers
  • passwords are private (except to parents)
  • people aren’t necessarily who they say they are in cyberspace
  • If they meet someone, it better be in a public place, with a friend

    • 2 There’s no such thing as “private” online. Anything posted can be seen by or forwarded to strangers, college admissions officers, and potential employers.

    3 Have an agreement about what’s okay to post. Teen years are full of self-expression and rebellion. Just make sure that your kids know your rules about suggestive material, alcohol, and drug references.

    4 Help your teen be a good digital citizen. Online cheating is still cheating. And flagging inappropriate content isn’t ratting – it’s keeping the Web a place where people want to hang out and where they can feel safe.

    5 The Golden Rule applies in cyberspace. If they wouldn’t do it in real life, they shouldn’t do it online. No humiliating or cruel posts, no hate speech or groups, no compromising pictures they wouldn’t want the world to see.

    6 Agree on downloads. What music is okay? Which video sites? What games?

    7 Encourage critical thinking. They should ask “who posted this? and why?” This will help them find trustworthy information, and it will also help avoid online scams that deliver spyware and viruses directly to your home.

    8 Stay in safe neighborhoods. Just as your teens learn not to walk down dark alleys alone at night, they need to know how to avoid creepy places online. And if they do venture there, remind teens that unpleasant or suspicious communications should get trashed immediately.

    9 View your own habits carefully. You are the ultimate role models.

    10 Keep channels of communication open. Better safe than sorry. Make sure kids are comfortable telling you if anything menacing or cruel happens – no matter what site they were on.

    Download resources in Spanish

    Download our Internet Safety for High School Kids Tip-Sheet in Spanish
    Our Community Says

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    FreedomFromCensorship
    Posted by FreedomFromCensorship on 08/11/2009 (adult contributor)

    The first list of rules are actually pretty stable and sound. Although by high school you shouldn't expect your teen to share ever single thing with you about web usage, if anything at all. Their developing their own complex interests, and will probably be drawn to things you might not be sure you want them to see. But that's what teenagers do, and most can handle the material maturely by ages 15, 16 and up. Also, the internet should never turn into a policed or controlled zone. Sure, for younger kids, you might want to get a filter (I'm talking about kids under ages 12), but the internet is meant to be a free, uncontrolled source of all sorts of information and entertainment. Once we start breaking it down and censoring it, greedy companies will take over and try to give you a "personalized" internet with their select websites for ridiculous prices (See AOL's horrid service for an example of what was known as "wallet garden" internet access.).

    Posted by mikese on 05/26/2009 (adult contributor)

    I think student travel is where they need more security not just online.

    WOWitsme
    Posted by WOWitsme on 01/1/2009 (kid contributor, age 12)

    #9 made me laugh because i know what my dad does online and its not exactly role model material

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