Any friend who uses his own screen name on our computer must abide by our family rules when doing so. I will abide by my family computer rules on any computer where I may have access, even away from home. Some of these rules sound arbitrary, but all of them are sound. For example, you may believe a chat room is a safe place for your children to visit. But chat rooms are the most dangerous places on the Internet.
Pedophiles lurk in the chat rooms and elicit conversations with unwary children.
And even if your child is spared this personal attention, there are computer programs that regularly search chat rooms to collect email addresses, which are then used to send pornography solicitations to those email boxes. It was like opening the door of our home and dumping a can of garbage on the carpet. The other situation that may cause trouble for your children is when they go online with a friend. The friend may have less stringent rules regarding computer behavior than your family does. In fact, if a friend misbehaves online using the screen name of one of your family members, your family's online account can be canceled.