“Mom, I’m going to Julie’s house!” your 13-year-old daughter Amanda shouts as she runs out the front door. She and Julie had been close friends since preschool, so you give your customary reply, “Okay, be back by dinner!” and return to your duties.

Dinner comes and goes with no sign of Amanda.

You call Julie’s house to see what the hold-up is, but Julie’s mother tells you she hasn’t seen your daughter. As a parent you are understandably concerned for her well-being and with midnight approaching rapidly, you call the police department; however, there is no information about your daughter until a few days later, when a local garbage truck driver finds her body in a dumpster.

Amanda was victim of the snare of an internet stalker. He was a master at the art of slowly gaining the trust of young girls on the internet, so when he asked your daughter to meet him under the online alias Lauren West, fourteen years old and a resident of your city, she didn’t suspect a thing.

But fortunately, Amanda is not your daughter and you are not her mother. And by taking a few simple steps, you can ensure that you never will be.

The majority of the online danger that your child could encounter is in the form of inappropriate webpage content such as pornography, and most people your child will meet over the Internet are not stalkers.

But tell that to the parents that allowed their son to meet with an Internet “friend” and never saw him again. Though unlikely, as a parent you cannot rule out the possibility that your child will talk to a person in a chat room or receive an email from a person they don’t know who intends to cause him or her harm.

The first and best way to protect your child from any online hazards would be to move the family computer into one of the main rooms of the house rather than a nook down the hallway where privacy is only a closed door away. It would also be a good idea not to allow your child to have a computer in his or her room, or if you do, to keep it disconnected from the Internet.

To further your child’s online safety, always have your child tell you about emails from senders they are not familiar with so that you may view the message first. Links that may be contained within the message could lead to web content you do not want your child exposed to; furthermore, the message itself may be derogatory.

It is also possible that your child may give personal information, such as age, address, credit card information, etc. to someone they meet over the internet.

Whether you feel you can trust your child or not, you should always monitor his or her internet activity; it’s better to be safe than sorry. You should visit any sites that you do not recognize to ensure appropriate content, because even when a child seems trustworthy, you can never be certain. Everyone knows of at least one instance in which a child was trusted and abused that trust.

If at all possible, you should keep your child away from chat rooms. If, however, you think they’re responsible, only allow them to use closed chat rooms, available only to your child and the person(s) using them. Access is denied to people attempting to join an active closed chat room.

Above all, talk to your child and stress to them the importance of internet privacy. Explain the reasons for keeping secrets while online. A ten-year-old might not understand why they can’t tell people their real name, but if they can comprehend that it is dangerous, then they can join in the battle to prevent you from becoming Amanda’s mother.

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