Parent involvement is essential to keeping kids safe on the internet. Involvement doesn't necessarily mean standing over Susie's shoulder and lecturing her about internet predators. Parents need to understand the communication forums of the internet; email instant messaging, blogs and chat rooms. These tactics are how your child is communicating with friends and strangers.

Email may be one of the safest forms of internet communication because your child has the control over who receives the email, the content of the email and when the email is sent.

Instant Messaging or IM has replaced the telephone in many households. Teens can talk to 2 or 10 friends at the same time. Your child has control over who can join his/her IM and if he/she wants to respond. Acronyms are used to cut down typing time, like LOL (laugh out loud) or BTW (by the way). If several friends are on IM together, each friend can see messages posted.

Blogs are diaries or logs written and maintained by one author. New material shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Even though there is some control by the author, anyone can read the information, add a comment to the page, link to the page or email the author directly.

Chat rooms share the same structure as instant messaging, with a back and forth conversation. They differ because you can talk to strangers in a chat room. Anyone can join and talk about anything. Some chat room are regulated, for example if they are apart of an educational institution, but many more chat rooms are available for public use. And in a chat room, all readers can view what each user is posting.

Wiresaftey.com and safekids.com offer helpful advice to parents to keep children and teens safe on the internet.

• Ask to see their profile page.
• Have your child blur any photos so they cannot be used on other sites.
• It's not an invasion of privacy if strangers can read it.
• Don't believe everything you read on MySpace.
• Don't exaggerate the dangers on the Internet, but do warn your children about giving out personal information.
• Talk to your children about expectations and computer rules.
• Remember, you are still the parent. If your child doesn't listen, take the computer away.