Do you know who’s interacting with your child on-line?  I received a post from one of my friends on Facebook where an area teacher this week was arrested for soliciting a minor for sex, 13 year old, on-line.  This sh** just makes my blood boil.  We simply can not trust our children on-line, in school, in sports or anywhere these days.    It’s so sad, but the reality of the world in which we live. 

The cover-up at Penn State was enough to make me cry, people just turning their heads and looking the other way while someone is abusing a child.  How do you sleep at night?  How do you get up in the morning, dress, go to work and look at someone who you know is abusing children and you do nothing.  Now it’s happening in my own backyard.  Predators!  People who we believe we can trust as role models for our children taking advantage of them.   The teacher in my area was a fourth grade teacher at an Intermediate School about a mile from me, and had been recently named as the assistant boy’s basketball coach at another Middle School in the areal.  I wonder what we could have expected there, another Jerry Sandusky? 

We as parents must see danger when it comes to our children, and our children must understand the danger of on-line predators as well as those that they will encounter in their childhood.  If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering what you should do to keep your child safe on-line.  Here’s a few tips:  

• Talk to your child about on-line sexual predators.  They’ll probably try to convince you that they’re okay and know what’s going on, but stand firm. 
• Improve your computer skills. and controll what your child accesses on-line.  There is parental control software on the market, download it on your family computer.  We were all children at some point, so we understand privacy, but this is your child’s life and we must protect them at all costs.    
• Make sure you can view your child and the screen on the computer when they’re on-line.  
• Know what sites they’re visiting, and enforce rules. 
• Looks for gifts, money or other items that where not provided by you or grand parents.
• Limit the amount of time your child spends on the computer if they are not doing homework or playing games.
• Check for sexual communication, images etc. 
• Limit the number of hours your teen/child is home alone. 

What do predators look for when in search of prey:  

• Most find our children in chat rooms, through instant messages, email or social networking sites.  
• They befriend and win children’s affection with gifts, being kind and giving them attention.  They are astute at knowing who to solicit.  

Unfortunately, we can’t protect our children around the clock.  Make these stories a part of your dinner conversation, so your child can understand how real predators are and if they aren’t cautious they too can become prey.