THE DARK SIDE OF THE "WINDOW"

You protect your child not letting him (her) go out to play without supervision, you drop and pick your kids up when they go to parties or to school. However, as soon as they get home they open the window to the world and they turn into potential victims again. The internet allows your kid to interact with those strangers you fear so bad. They play games together and predators can disguise to establish a "relationship" with their victims right under the parent's nose!

Years ago, when the television started, another kind of "window" was created. One where millions of people from everywhere around the world were influenced by other people's thoughts and experiences in life. Movie after movie, our society changed for ever! In a way, every one, somehow, became affected by a specific movie hero for good or for bad.

However, with the computer there is a direct link with our kids, the people on that screen can talk to our kids, convince them to do things and even worse... build trust!

Every night, we go to bed and those strangers still talking to our kids, tiding up that circle between them more and more.

Now there are open chat rooms, where all kind of information is disclosed, information used by predators to locate your kids, no matter if they are hundreds of miles away.

A predator will find the pray! It is a fact! They will use any information they receive to satisfy their sick needs. Don't let them full you, even if you cannot see them they are there. Remember! They know everything about you too, they already found out what school your kids attend to, the names of their friends, and of course they have the web camera so they know your residence from the inside out.

Scary?! Oh this is nothing! Some kids have the computer inside of their room and they lock the door to "chat in peace" with that special friend they met on line. They turn the camera on and start disclosing personal information, photos or video clips with "other kids their age", thinking they are talking to a girl or a boy their age.

For a lonely kid, raised by working parents, it is almost a relief to have someone to talk with when they feel scared, frustrated or simply sad. Predators are always available!

Kids today want to be "cool" (another "fashion" added from movies) and therefore, parents are obsolete. They rather talk to their friends even if they cannot see their real faces.

Predators will tell your kids all kind of stories to sympathize with them and they wil take your kids side if you grounded them for something. They will encourage to send them their pictures and they will send fake photos back to your kids. And remember they do listen to your kids when you are too busy to do so. They know when a kid is hungry for attention, they can "smell" if you argued with your kids and they will take advantage of this situation on their behalf! Offering to pick them up if they talk about running away from home or simply offering to come and visit them to give them advise.

It is know of predators who have flown from other states and even from other countries just to meet with their victims.

In other words, the privacy of your kids in front of the computer might turn into the biggest risk they can take during their day. You tough them how to look both sides before crossing the streets, are you going to let them fall in the predators nets and not do anything abut it?

Start by:

- Placing the computer in a busy spot of your house. Discouraging them from using the web camera for private sessions.

- Talk to your kids and explain to them why is so dangerous to disclose personal information on line. Also explain to them that the kids they talk to on line might not be kids after all even if they already show them pictures of themselves.

- Tell them to alert you if they found someone who asks too many personal questions and to end that conversation right away.

- Advise them not to mention the names of their friends or the school they go to. Predators will use any lead they can to get to your kids.

- Discourage them from using high risk web sites like myspace.com and give them other options like

www.netsmartz.org . - Navigate with them through we sites like www.watchdog.net where you can show them pictures of predators and real testimonies of real kids that make the mistake to trust their "on line friends".

- Finally, please remember that your best weapon against predators is to listen to your kids. Establish an honest and open communication channel between you all and repeat over and over that "whatever it is they can tell you".

Make your kids aware of what they are exposed to, they have the right to know and you have the duty to protect them even if they don't like it!