Four-Hundred Twenty-Four Thousand Sixty-Six.
That is how many children were reported missing to law enforcement in the United States last year. To each parent of those children the only number that matters is ONE.
While researching for a different article, a trend was found in information on parent’s knowledge, or lack of, regarding what their children actually do online.
Freestone County is not an exception to this rule. The school grows and improves by offering children better educational tools, many times via the internet. LCT talks about local citations that for the sake of transparency, we wanted to strive and understand why the decline in citation effectiveness.
Today’s world is strongly internet based. A vast wealth of information and education is available with just a few keystrokes. At the same time, there is a vast amount of terrifying things lurking on the internet. Monitoring the internet to make certain children and families remain safe has become critical, but here is a good spyrix demo if you want to see the best review on how to keep them safe.
A healthy balance between restriction and allowance is critical to protecting children. Education on safe use habits can go a long way protecting a child proactively.
Parents need to make an effort to know the different way all children, not just their own, communicate online. Children communicate many ways, not only on their computer, but on all their electronic devices; cell phones, tablets, and gaming systems.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers videos, on their website, for children of all ages to help them understand the dangers of the internet.
Rules and Guidelines
It is crucial for parents to sit down with their children and set out a set of rules, guidelines, and expectations.
Never share pictures and/or personal information. A predator only needs three pieces of information to identify and locate someone, sometimes less. For example, which state a child lives in, their mascot and their picture is enough to find them.
Never share passwords. Once you share your password you’ve given a person access, and it is not always as easy as a simple password change to remove it.
For the older children, meet friends made online with extreme caution. First phone calls and personal meet ups should not be alone. Someone should always know where they are, how they got there, and when they should be home.
Discuss the dangers with your child.
Listen to your child
Listen to your child if they come to you saying something bothers them.
Always keep communication lines open, and non-judgmental. Once the communication lines are shut down a child will not feel comfortable telling you.
If your child does come to you with a problem or concerns, do not overreact.
Watch for warning signs
If there are phone calls from people you do not know, especially out of your local area, ask who they are and make sure that is who they are.
Long hours spent online, especially at night can signal something is wrong.
Unsolicited gifts coming in the mail are another sign of a predator trying to get to your child.
A child withdrawing from family life and not wanting to discuss their online activities may have something to hide.
Turning off the computer or hiding their phone is a major sign that they are trying to hide something from their parent.
Know their Devices
Each device your child may use has different ways of reaching out to other people.
A cell phone or tablet can easily download an app, that is most likely free, that allows children to reach out to people near and far.
Some apps are purely for meeting up with people locally, and even give details in how close you are to another user.
Personal computers and laptops have an even higher selection of ways for children to communicate with other people.
Some games, Minecraft is a great example, offer private servers. Private servers are just that, owned by a private person who opted to buy a game server; as opposed to a business owning the server.
The owner of the private server can see very detailed IP information and acquire a player’s location. This is normally only a concern on a small, under 100, server.
Video Game Consoles frequently allow players to interact with other people while playing any multiplayer game.
Kids can be exposed to cyberbullying via multiplayer games, and even more terrifying is online gaming is sometimes used as a way to groom children.
Report when necessary
Know how and when to report genuinely offensive or dangerous material.
Call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678 if you’re aware of the sending, use or viewing of child pornography online.
Contact your local law enforcement agency or the FBI if your child has received child pornography via the Internet.


Useful Links
https://usa.kaspersky.com
http://www.missingkids.org
https://kidshealth.org
https://www.parenting.com