Making the Net Safe for Kids

Quiz time:

1. Are you ROFL?
2. What's the difference between MySpace and Facebook?
3. What's a buddy list?
4. Is Ebaum's World a good place for kids to hang out?

If you faltered on any of the above, you need to come to the seminar on Internet Safety April 30. But for that matter, if you have a home computer at all, you need to come to the seminar on Internet Safety April 30.

The internet is great. I don't know how we got along without it. But parents scarcely appreciate how vital the internet becomes to a teenager's social life. The day is coming when your kid will be eager to travel beyond disney.com and nick.com. As a parent, you need to know about chat rooms, instant messaging, social networking sites, and other places a pre-teen is probably not yet interested in frequenting.

Do you need a filter? How do they work? Is file sharing ok? All of these questions and more will be answered at this presentation, featuring guest speakers Brian and Julie Dixon.

Plan to join us in the 4th-6th grade room - Room 100 - on Monday, April 30 at 7 pm. Need more information? Contact April in Marriage and Family Ministries, at april@northcoastcalvary.org.

And if nothing else, you'll get to spend some time among fellow parents who are walking the same road you are, which is something we're trying to do more and more of.

OK, here are the answers, in reverse order:

4. Ebaum's World is a site with games, prank phone calls, videos, and other comedy items. Some are appropriate for pre-teens, but a lot of it is not. (Many of the funny videos you've been e-mailed are archived there.)

3. A buddy list is used in instant messaging programs, like AOL Instant Messenger. By glancing at it, you can tell who is available to talk, who is "away", and who is signed off.

2. Both are used by young people to stay in touch and express themselves, but Facebook is more commonly used by college students.

1. ROFL is internet shorthand for "Rolling on the Floor Laughing."

And if that's what you're doing now because you went 0 for 4 on the quiz, you really need this seminar!