1. Chat Room Safety How to keep your child safe!

2. Welcome Middle School Parents! You are about to begin your journey through Chat Room Safety! Pay close attention and take notes if necessary, you will be using this information to educate your middle school aged child how to be safe while chatting.

3. What is a Chat Room? A chat room is a virtual room online where people can go to communicate with others simultaneously by typing on their computer keyboard. There messages/responses can be exchanged almost instantly via the internet.

4. Chat Rooms Can Be…… Both Educational & Fun! There are lots of educational/informational chat rooms where students can go to get information from people who are experts on a specific topic. This sort of chat room can be a great help in completing homework assignments. There are also chat rooms where people will meet to talk just for fun!

5. Safety Guidelines Make sure that your child finds a reputable kid- friendly site that is monitored by adults Always use gender neutral/anonymous nicknames Never give out personal information or pictures Never accept gifts or suspicious emails which may carry a virus Never arrange a face to face meeting Report all inappropriate behavior to the site moderator

6. Possible Dangers Anonymous Usernames You don’t know who is lurking out there! It may be an adult pretending to be a child! Private Chat Rooms Being asked to leave a public room and go to a private room! Private rooms are not moderated by an adult. Sharing Files Can lead to: Viruses, spy- ware, inappropriate materials such as sexually explicit photos or text

7. Kid Friendly Site Links Great Web Sites for Kids Best Sites for Children Funbrain.com Encyberpedia Fun teen chat Chat in your zip code Kid Safe internet

8. Resource Sites This site gives information about chat rooms, describes the kinds of risks out there in cyber world, and suggests ways to avoid problems. There are also links to tools for families, and websites for kids. Are you web aware? This site provides news, facts, and guidelines to using chat rooms. http://kids.getnetwise.org/saf etyguide/technology/chat http://www.media- awareness.ca/english/resour ces/special_initiatives/wa_re sources/wa_teachers/are_yo u_web_aware/web_aware_c hat.cfm

9. Places to go for Assistance: http://www.surfsafely.net/ http://www.gaggle.net http://www.noahsweb.com/ http://www.icognito.com http://www.dciseries.com/ http://www.velocitus.net.