Parents' Guide

Parents need to keep the same watchful eye on their children while in cyberspace that they would in the physical world, but that can be a challenge.

The NBC 10 Investigators have put together some tools to make things easier for parents.

Answers: Frequently Asked Questions

Checklist: Internet Safety For Parents

Checklist: Internet Safety For Kids

Checklist: Warning Signs Kids Might Be In Trouble

How To: Find Your Child On The Internet

Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

Sites Try To Self-Police

Sites like MySpace try to self-police themselves. If MySpace finds that a user is younger than 14, that user's site is shut down.

NBC 10 asked MySpace some questions about their practices. Click here to read their complete responses.

From MySpace:

Safety Tips

Tips For Parents

Report Underage Users Or Delete Child's Account

MySpace.com Response To NBC 10 Report

MySpace Partners With WiredSafety.org

What Are They Saying?

You may have tried to see what your child is typing to a friend and see nothing but letters, such as LOL or PAL. Chat rooms, Internet messaging and text messages have introduced many acronyms into the way people communicate. (LOL mean Laughing Out Loud and PAL means Parents Are Listening)

IKeepSafe.org has a good guide to the letter lingo.

Monitoring Your Child's Internet Use

Expert Parry Aftab recommends Spector Soft, which sells software that monitors computer use, from Web sites visited to e-mails and IM conversations, and can block access to certain Web sites.

Detectives NBC 10 spoke with suggested these programs:

Spector Pro

Spytech

SnagIt

If you want more choices, click here for a list of reviews of the some filtering software. If you are still uncertain, IKeepSafe.org has a good explanation of how the software works.