Child Safe Internet Searching
Safe Web Chat
To be perfectly honest we (yehboosearch.info) do not recommend the use chat rooms for anyone
under the age of 16 unsupervised, this is not to say that chat rooms can't be fun and interesting places to be. Although we believe
that there is no 100% way of being safe on such sites there are some steps parents can take to help reduce any problem issues.
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Registration: Make sure the chat room in question has a good policy for the sign-up
and registration of your child and that the site requires parental acceptance, whereby the site will have to contact the parent for
verification.
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Some sites offer this verification process by email (which is NOT very secure) as this does
not stop a child from opening 2 email accounts one for themselves and the other for the parent. "How does the receiving
site know?" Unless the parent email has to be sent to a company email!
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Should the latter be required in this case, it does not stop someone with a company email address
from pretending to be a child on one email address and the same child's parent on the company email address, although this would help
trace someone if anything dubious were to happen.
Without doubt the best form of registration on any web chat room for your child is where the parents telephone
number is required and the site verifies the registration with a call back to the child's parent.
- Monitored: Make sure the chat site in question is constantly monitoring all the chat and
monitored by the sites staff.
- Features: Safe chat sites will have parental control features that let the parents
control who their children can chat to once your child is online.
- Software: Filter software often in downloadable format can help towards the safety of
your child on web chat sites. These are usually designed to keep track and check on every web page the child has visited through their
browser; different programmes may be needed for different browsers. Some filter software - along with checking pages will remove or disallow
obscene or vulgar content or the viewing of such pages.
Recommendation for such software will be published here in the future as and when we sample and
verify the integrity of such programmes.
Is Your Child at Risk? Some Signs:
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Your child maybe spending excessive amounts on time on-line particularly on a night. The majority of
children chat on evening after school and on weekends. Don't become paranoid but be aware of the amount of time then spend on the
computer and at what time.
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Pornography on the child's computer, this is often sent by sex offenders to victimise the child and
open sexual discussion. Children may often save these to disk if the computer is being used by others.
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Be suspicious of phone calls directly after your child leave the computer, long distance calls,
collect calls (reverse charge) and numbers you do not recognise.
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Your Child quickly turns off the monitor when you enter the room or changes the screen, minimises
etc.
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Gifts, Mail and Packages sent to your child from someone you do not know.
What To Do If You Suspect Your Child Is Communicating With A Sexual Predator
On-line?
- Talk to your child about your suspicions and inform them of the dangers of Predators.
- Check your child's computer for signs.
- Block IP address of suspected offenders and inform your local law enforcement agency.
- Check Phone numbers incoming and outgoing. Phone companies also offer a blocking service.
- After meeting a child on-line most sex offenders always try to meet potential victims or contact them through email.
Check your child's email for any evidence of this.
If Your child or anyone in the household has received child pornography, sexually solicited by someone who knows your child
is under 18 years of age or Your child has received sexually explicit images from anyone who knows they are under 18 then you should
immediately contact your local law enforcement agency.
Turn the computer off, unless directed otherwise by law enforcement officials, to preserve any evidence which
can later be retrieved from the computer.
HELP & CONTACT NUMBERS: US - UK
US:
1-800-BE-ALERT (1-800-232-5378) is U.S. Customs' twenty-four- hour hotline. This will send your complaint to the right law enforcement
agency.
1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) as well as online at www.cybertipline.com. They get thousands of child-exploitation tips a year.
Web site is www.missingkids.com Formed under special legislation. Information is officially shared with the
FBI Innocent Images Unit and U.S. Customs' Cybersmuggling unit, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and local law enforcement agencies.
UK:
Microsoft has a direct link to the police for it's messenger service who can be contact at the click a mouse button.
IWF Internet Watch Foundation
The Children's Society
Local Police.
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