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Experts Warn Parents to be Alert for Online Predators

While the internet can be an extremely useful tool for students who are doing research projects or a lot of fun with the vast amount of games available online, experts are warning that the internet can be very dangerous for vulnerable children. Chat rooms, especially, are open to unsavory characters that prey on the innocence of children who cannot distinguish between friendly behavior and underlying sexual innuendos.

Internet predators lurk in chat rooms, trying to find out youngsters? identity. Parents are warned to encourage their children never to reveal any personal information and never to post identification features such as photographs. Children should also be warned never to leave the house to meet someone whom they have met on the internet as there have been too many stories of pedophiles hitting on children who they are able to lure out of the house.

The main message given by the experts is that parents should be more aware of their children?s computer habits. Ideally, PC?s should be kept in an open space in the house so that parents can keep a constant eye on the sites that the child is surfing and the kind of messages he or she is receiving. Children should also be given to the tools to know how to deal with online bullying. With the internet such an important feature in our lives, it is impossible to prevent exposing it to our children. However, we can take the necessary steps to protect them from surfers who abuse the internet by preying on innocent children.