Know your child's online habits. As kids grow older, most parents keep less careful tabs on their activities, but you shouldn't completely ignore what they're up to. Find out about the Internet activities your kids participate in, including music downloads, AOL chats, Usenet newsgroups, IRC chat, and instant messaging. Keep your child's e-mail address as private as possible and set privacy preferences in the software your kid uses. Set the computer in plain sight.
Some parents decide to put the family's PC in a common area of the house.
They need to know they're being monitored. When the Crimes Against Children Research Center polled 1500 children and parents about online safety, chat proved to be the most dangerous Internet activity. Chat is dangerous because most rooms are not moderated and may be frequented by shady characters. If your children use chat, monitor their sessions and steer them toward moderated chat rooms. Some of the same cautions apply to instant messaging.