Why you need to know what your child does on the Internet

Much like the real world, the World Wide Web can be an inviting but dangerous place for children. Young people with unmonitored access to the Internet can be exposed to a wide variety of risks, some of them even life-threatening. Every responsible parent knows the importance of exercising caution and oversight when it comes to where and with whom our kids are allowed to play, what they watch on TV, and how they interact with strangers. Parents should be just as vigilant in monitoring their children's Internet activities.

Just as for adults, the World Wide Web offers many benefits to children, including valuable educational resources and communication tools that make it easier for them to keep in touch with people who are important to them. But the Internet also offers kids easy access to a variety of objectionable and even dangerous material - including pornography, hate propaganda, and violent images.

Children can and regularly do receive unsolicited e-mail communications from Internet predators who seek to harm kids they meet online. Pedophiles, for example, can operate with complete anonymity on the Internet, which provides them an endless supply of potential victims - our children. But parents and law enforcement are not powerless to stop Internet predators. We must work together to protect our children by educating them about the dangers posed by the Internet and by monitoring and restricting our kids' online activities.

The Solano County District Attorney's Office is committed to protecting our children from becoming victims of online crime or engaging in illegal Internet activities themselves. The goals of the Protecting Our Kids Web site initiative are simple. We want to reduce the number of kids exploited and abducted by Internet predators; we hope to increase the reporting of such criminal activity; and we strive to provide parents, guardians, and other responsible adults with resources to make our kids' online experiences safe, educational, and fun.

Solano County District Attorney

About the Protecting Our Kids Program

Protecting Our Kids program helps parents and other concerned adults safeguard the Internet activities of young people. Protecting Our Kids gives parents and other adults in charge of supervising children's online computer activities the tools needed to protect kids from online predators and prevent them from engaging in Internet crime.

By understanding how to avoid the dangers of the Internet and how to take control of the family computer, parents can successfully keep criminal predators out of their homes and out of their children's lives. They can also learn how to prevent their children from using the Internet to break the law.

Please take time to view all of the sections on the Protecting Our Kids Web site. You can learn "How Bad is the Problem", "What Can I Do?", what "Parental Controls" are available, your children's rights under the "Childrens Online Privacy Act", how to access statewide and national databases pursuant to "Megan's Law", how to help your kids take the "Honest Surfer Pledge" and view "Links" to other resources.