Child Safety on the Internet

Protect your child online.

Guidelines for Parents

Make it a family rule to never give out identifying information—home address, school name or telephone number—on public chat Web Sites or bulletin boards; and be sure you're dealing with someone that both you and your child know and trust before giving out this information via e-mail.
Get to know the Internet and any services your child uses.
Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without parental permission and supervision.
Never respond to messages or bulletin board items that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening or make you feel uncomfortable.
Encourage your children to tell you if they encounter such messages.
Talk with your children about what they can and cannot do online.
Check out blocking, filtering and ratings. Realize that filtering programs can't protect your child from all dangers in cyberspace. Filtering programs are not a substitute for good judgment or critical thinking. With or without filters, kids and their parents need to be Internet savvy.
Consider keeping the computer in a family room rather than a child's bedroom.
Get to know your children's online friends just as you get to know all of their other friends.

Albuquerque Police Department's Child Exploitation Detail @ 505-761-4060
24-hour child pornography tip line, 800-843-5678 and Cyber Tipline, Cybertipline, maintained by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
U.S. Customs Service Investigates the importation and trafficking of child pornography. Its jurisdiction includes smuggling via the Internet, 800-232-5378.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Alexandria, VA, 800-843-5678.
Office for Victims of Crime, U.S. Department of Justice, 202-616-3585 or at
National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, Pure Hope 800-583-2964
Privacy Rights "Children in Cyberspace" fact sheet.

APD Crime Prevention 505-768-2006