Thursday, September 25, 2008

12 Safety Tips on Bloggers

The practice of blogging, short for keeping a "Web log" or online personal journal, has spread like wildfire -- especially among teenagers, who sometimes maintain blogs without the knowledge of their parents or guardians.

Recent studies show that teenagers write roughly half of all blogs today, with two out of three providing their age, three out of five revealing their location and contact information, and one in five revealing their full name. It should go without saying that there are potential risks in sharing this type of detailed personal information.

And, as more young peers create more blogs, they tend to compete increasingly with each other for attention. Sometimes this can lead to kids posting inappropriate material such as provocative pictures of themselves or their friends.

  1. Establish rules for online use with your kids and be diligent.
  2. Screen what your kids plan to post before they post it. Seemingly innocuous information, such as a school mascot and town photo, could be put together to reveal where the author goes to school.
  3. Ask yourself (and instruct your kids to do the same) if you are you comfortable showing any of the content to a stranger. If in doubt, have them take it out.
  4. Evaluate the blogging service and find out if it offers private, password-protected blogs.
  5. Save the Web address of your child's Blog and review it on a regular basis.
  6. Check out other blogs to find positive examples for your kids to emulate.

Basic guidelines for Bloggers
The following tips are a good place to start for kids interested in blogging, although by no means comprehensive. It's a good idea for parents to add more guidelines to suit their family's particular needs. Start by telling kids that they should: READ MORE



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