Safety Tips > Safety Rules for Internet Users
My Smart Safety Rules (for schoolkids) | Safety Rules for Pre Schoolers | Parents Safety Rules | Safety Rules for Internet Users | Safety Guidelines for Teenagers | Amusement Park and Summer Safety Rules | Travel Safety Rules | Parents Stealing Children (Safeguardsto Help Prevent Parental Child Abduction)

• Establish rules for Internet use with your parents or another adult, including when you can go online, for how long and what activities you can do online. Post your rules next to your computer for easy reference.
• Keep the computer in a common space, like the family room or den.
• Don't share your password with anyone else, and never give out the following information: your real name, address (including your town or city), age, school, phone number or other personal information.
• Check with your parents before signing up for something online, or giving out a credit card number.
• Never send a photograph of yourself to someone in email unless your parents say it's OK.
• Check with your parents or another adult you trust before going into a chat room. Different chat rooms have different rules and attract different kinds of people. You and your parents will want to make sure it's an appropriate place for you.
• Never agree to meet someone you met on the Internet in person without your parent's permission. Never meet anyone you met online alone, or in an isolated place. Meet in a public place, and go with your parents or an adult you trust.
• When you are online, what you do is up to you. Don't do anything that makes you uncomfortable. Trust your instincts.
• If someone online asks you too many personal questions, be suspicious and stop talking with them.
• Always remember that people online may not be who they say they are. Treat everyone online as if they were strangers.
• Be careful when someone offers you something for free, like gifts or money. Decline the offer and tell your parents.
• If you receive unwanted, offensive, mean, threatening, or harassing email, do not respond to it – tell your parents or another adult right away.
• If something you see or read online makes you uncomfortable, leave the site. Tell a parent or teacher right away.
• Treat other people as you'd like to be treated. Never use bad language or send mean messages online.
• Remember – not everything you read on the Internet is true.
• The "off" button is always there. Use it if you need to. You don't have to stay online.

Thanks to the following sponsor for caring enough to support our work: