Every time I give a speech or get interviewed, I'm asked for my top online safety tips. And like so many in my industry, I will advise some standards such as getting the computer out of the bedroom or never talk to strangers when you are online. What's becoming ever more clear is that while those tips are still good, they all should come with a warning label: Advice may be highly generic; apply with caution and better parental education.
Let's see how one such tip breaks down into needing more information to be usable. The canard about keeping the computer in a public area? Sounds great if what it leads to is greater on-hand parental supervision of screen time. But just slapping the family computer into the kitchen doesn't automatically protect your children if they just learn to do their higher risk activities while you are at the market or otherwise occupied.
Additionally, kids are getting online in so many places and on so many devices. Even if the family computer is secured in a public area, contains filters and security software and all activity is monitored and reviewed by Bill Gates himself, any kid with a cell phone or gaming device can still get into heaps of online trouble.
I still think computers should be kept out of the bedrooms if at all possible and especially for middle school aged kids. If the computer is out of sight from parents, their kids may take greater risks such as installing webcams and taking videos of themselves, taking photos and sending them to friends or strangers, visiting forbidden websites such as porn or downloading pirated videos and music. They may still do all those things on a kitchen-based computer but with greater fear of being caught and fewer opportunities.
When it comes to older teens, parents need to work with their children to accomodate private computer use, to help with concentration on research projects, collaboration with peers on group work and to help build self-sufficiency that is needed at the college level. Many of our schools are requiring laptops to be used by each student. You can't be everywhere that laptop goes, so you will want to be sure you are talking with your laptop-using child about internet and online safety issues. Refer to my article about having "the Talk" for your summer homework. At least then your child can be safer wherever they go online, whether in your kitchen or not.