Internet Safety Tips for Parents

100 Internet Safety Tips for Parents: Dr. Nuccitelli presents one hundred Internet safety tips for parents to use when educating your child on reducing their chances of being harmed online, engaging in high-risk online activities & allowing offline distress to impact their online behavior. The tips are phrased in the “You and your child” tense. To encourage your child to experience interest in what they are likely to initially view as a mundane task, phrasing the tips in this manner makes them a team approach and not a one-sided parent/child task. These internet safety tips were compiled and formatted from the extensive research invested in the design of Dr. Nuccitelli’s information age concept, iPredator.

Some of the items listed may not apply to your child based on their age, maturational development and access to all types of electronic devices. When completing the checklist, correct responses are affirmative and should be “Yes, Agree, True.” Of the items that do apply to you, your child and family, the goal is to correctly agree to 95% of the items. Achieving a 95% correct response score suggests you and your child are in the low probability cyber-attack range.

100

• 1. You and your child discuss cyberbullying and/or cyber harassment issues.
• 2. You and your child know to ignore being harassed or teased online.
• 3. You and your child do not flame (a provoking message) others online.
• 4. You and your child will always be supportive if a friend is being cyberbullied or cyber harassed.
• 5. You and your child know who, when and how to report a cyberbully, cyberstalker or cyber harasser.
• 6. You and your child refrain from posting or sharing images or videos online that are even slightly embarrassing.
• 7. You and your child practice digital citizenship (online manners.)
• 8. You and your child know what to do if taunted online.
• 9. You and your child do not post or share offensive information or images online.
• 10. You and your child are cautious about posting personal information online.
• 11. You and your child check your “digital footprint.”
• 12. You and your child do not share confidential information to ex-friends or ex-partners online.
• 13. You and your child practice caution what is disclosed online.
• 14. You and your child protect your images from strangers viewing them online.
• 15. You and your child know how to sustain and monitor a positive digital reputation.
• 16. You and your child know images can remain in cyberspace for years.
• 17. You and your child know information shared online may be impossible to delete.
• 18. You and your child do not have a mobile device with information that is embarrassing.
• 19. You and your child know sexting can be criminal & shared with others.
• 20. You and your child know personal information posted or shared online can go viral.
• 21. You and your child know everyone has a digital footprint.
• 22. You and your child know images and videos can be posted multiple times.
• 23. You and your child know what information can be harmful to digital reputation.
• 24. You and your child practice good behavior online and in chatrooms.
• 25. You and your child do not share personal information using Twitter.
• 26. You and your child check email and social media profiles for strange messages and posts.
• 27. You and your child do not have sexual conversations with unknown online strangers.
• 28. You and your child do not make phone calls to online strangers.
• 29. You and your child would not meet someone in person met online without telling loved ones.
• 30. You and your child do not respond to anyone not known in chat rooms.
• 31. You and your child do not open an attachment sent from an online stranger.
• 32. You and your child do not discuss financial information with online strangers.
• 33. You and your child log out if feeling uncomfortable or fearful.
• 34. You and your child do not engage in online activities not approved of by loved ones.
• 35. You and your child would not meet anyone met online without first telling a trusted adult.
• 36. You and your child know they are at a higher risk of being contacted by online strangers at night.
• 37. You and your child do not discuss sexual topics with online strangers.
• 38. You and your child do not accept free software, ringtones, or screensavers from online strangers.
• 39. You and your child do not have names on “buddy” or “friends” lists you do not know.
• 40. You and your child do not send personal information to others you do not know.
• 41. You and your child do not disclose passwords with others met online.
• 42. You and your child do not text message or chat about sex online.
• 43. You and your child know that internet predators target online users using kindness and understanding.
• 44. You and your child know internet predators use attention, affection and gifts to seduce online users.
• 45. You and your child know peer-to-peer networks can expose computers to internet predators.
• 46. You and your child know the best protection from internet predators are safe online communication and digital citizenship.
• 47. You and your child know how to block sites on computers from being accessed by internet predators.
• 48. You and your child know most internet predators will be encouraging, patient and reserved.
• 49. You and your child know file-sharing sites allow internet predators to access portions of a computer.
• 50. You and your child know internet predators encourage online users to share images online.
• 51. You and your child know internet predators encourage online users to share confidential information.
• 52. You and your child know how to prevent unwanted access to mobile devices.
• 53. You and your child know how to track the sending of digital photos from mobile devices.
• 54. If you or your child has a home WiFi system, you always run additional firewalls.
• 55. You and your child are educated on the dangers of GPS location services.
• 56. You and your child know GPS location services allow anyone to know the exact location of the owner of the cell phone.
• 57. You or your child has contacted mobile device services about adult controls and/or security settings.
• 58. You and your child spend time learning mobile device safety.
• 59. You and your child know how to install security on mobile devices.
• 60. You and your child know how to set up remote lock and wipe features in mobile devices.
• 61. You and your child monitor the stored images on mobile devices.
• 62. You and your child have downloaded and installed antivirus software on mobile devices.
• 63. You and your child treat mobile devices as carefully as wallets.
• 64. You and your child do not share confidential information on mobile devices.
• 65. You and your child silence mobile devices in public places.
• 66. You and your child comply with work or school policies regarding mobile device usage.
• 67. You and your child know there are few methods of filtering web content on mobile devices.
• 68. You and your child learn about the dangers of GPS location services.
• 69. You and your child know GPS location services allow anyone to know the owner’s exact location.
• 70. You and your child do not share passwords with close friends.
• 71. You and your child know to have multiple passwords.
• 72. You and your child are familiar with bot software, spyware, keystroke loggers and viruses.
• 73. You and your child know how to set a computer’s security settings high.
• 74. You and your child are familiar with home wireless networks (WiFi) and security settings.
• 75. You and your child do not participate in online activities others would not approve of.
• 76. You and your child do not click a link in an unknown email or instant message.
• 77. You and your child do not click on the links in the video comments section.
• 78. You and your child do not post home or cell phone numbers on social networking sites.
• 79. You and your child know how to be cautious about sharing contact information on gaming sites.
• 80. You and your child do not exchange images from someone met online.
• 81. You and your child always log off when not using instant messaging.
• 82. You and your child know about the dangers of disclosing personal information online.
• 83. You and your child have confirmed your school or work websites are password protected.
• 84. You and your child are cautious about posting email addresses to prevent screen scrapers.
• 85. You and your child do not include full or partial real names in user or screen names.
• 86. You and your child do not post full names or addresses on public websites.
• 87. You and your child post other images when encouraged to post personal images.
• 88. You and your child do not post full name, home address or telephone number on friend’s social profiles.
• 89. You and your child use various email addresses for different purposes.
• 90. You and your child do not include contact information in profiles or comments.
• 91. You and your child only download legal files, music and videos.
• 92. You and your child know whom to contact if being sexually solicited online.
• 93. You and your child do not have a social media profile with sensitive information available to the public.
• 94. You and your child do not share your social media profile passwords.
• 95. You and your child are cautious of flattering messages received online.
• 96. You and your child keep social profile pages “friends only” for inviting friends or loved ones.
• 97. You and your child spend time learning proper online etiquette.
• 98. You and your child review the privacy and security settings on social media sites.
• 99. You and your child do not post personal images on websites or social networking profiles.
• 100. You and your child refrain from responding to strange email messages or IM’s from social media accounts.

Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D.

Michael Nuccitelli, Psy.D. is a NYS licensed psychologist, cyberpsychology researcher and online safety educator. In 2009, Dr. Nuccitelli finalized his dark side of cyberspace concept called iPredator. Since 2010, he has advised those seeking information about cyberbullying, cyberstalking, cybercriminal minds, internet addiction and his Dark Psychology concept. By day Dr. Nuccitelli is a practicing psychologist, clinical supervisor and owner of MN Psychological Services, PLLC. After work and on the weekends, he volunteers helping online users who have been cyber-attacked. Dr. Nuccitelli’s is always available to interested parties and the media at no cost. This website and everything created by Dr. Nuccitelli is educational, free and public domain.