Sue Scheff: Teens and Chat Room Safety

Does your child, teen or do you venture into “Chat Rooms” online? Chat rooms are among the riskiest places on the Net for children and teens. Most Internet Predators are lingering waiting for their next victim in a variety of chat rooms. Don’t allow it to be your child.

As a Parent Advocate, I encourage all parents to take the steps to educate your children about cyber safety with a strong emphasis on chat room safety. October is National Cyber Safety Awareness Month, which is a reason for you to set aside time to sit with your kids and discuss what lurks online.

Here are some great Chat Room safety tips from Connect Safely to share with your family:
Remember that what you say in a chat room or instant messaging session is live -- you can't take it back or delete it later.

Don’t say anything you wouldn’t want the public to know — this includes your full name, your address, phone number of other personal information.

Don't get together with someone you meet in a chat room. If you must, meet in a public place and bring along some friends.

Don’t reveal your actual location or when and where you plan to hang out.

Choose a nickname that's not sexually suggestive and doesn’t give away your real name.

If someone says or does something creepy, block them and don't respond.

Just sign out if the topic turns to sex. That can often lead somewhere you don't want to go.

For more info: Connect Safely,iKeepSafe, ReputationDefender/MyChild, Google Bomb Book, Love Our Children USA, Cati Cares.

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Sue Scheff: Mother's against Internet Predators

October is National Cyber Safety Awareness Month. It is a time for parents to become educated on where their kids and teens surf online. Who are they chatting with? Who are they sending photo’s to? Where are they posting information?

During this month, I am going to bring you different valuable resources, websites, and tips to help you become more familiar with Cyber Safety and Cyber Protection.

In Broward County, Florida, we have an organization, Mothers Against Predators. This group is put in place to create an awareness of what lurks online as well as helping you protect your children. Internet Predators do not discriminate, any child is at risk if not properly taught about how to stay safe in cyberspace.

Learn more:

Mothers Against Predators is a non-profit corporation whose mandate is to promote legislation and education to facilitate the creation on an effective defense against Internet predators. Through outreach programs and advocacy groups, M.A.P. will educate children and parents on effective ways to be protected from Internet predators, and how to properly report inappropriate or illegal behavior. M.A.P. works in partnership with local and national elected officials and law enforcement to create effective legislation and laws to provide a defense against Internet predators.

Visit their website today and learn more: http://www.wearemap.org/index.html

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Sue Scheff: Teens helping Teens Fight Against Cyberbullying

Cati Cares - Helping Teens Stay Safe Online

Please Help Me STOP CYBER BULLYING and Help Keep Teens Using the Internet SAFE! Cati Cares is dedicated to serving teens in our community by providing a valuable resource for internet safety tips and cyber bullying prevention.

My name is Cati and I am a 16 year old junior at a local high school in San Diego, CA. I want to help make our world a safer place!

I decided to start this site on my 15th birthday as a way to reach out to other teens about how important INTERNET SAFETY is and how we can join together to STOP CYBER BULLYING. TURNING TEARS INTO ACTION.......

Unfortunately, many teens have been the victims of internet crimes and cyber bullying. Take the pledge to not be a bully and to BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE! If you have a problem and don't know where to turn, please CONTACT ME and I will offer some helpful advice and a safe haven to share your story and seek help.

I continue to strive to be better everyday of my life and I live my life to the fullest. Being a teen isn't easy and each teen should be able to face middle school and high school prepared and ready for some of the tough issues they may face.

I want everyone to be able to feel safe on the internet and be confident that they WILL NOT be cyber bullied. Join ME and use my tips to stay safe and to stop the vicious trend of cyber bullying.

Visit Cati's website at https://caticares.com/Home_Page.php and help her to help others!

Sue Scheff: Tips and Tools to Keeping Your Family Safe Online

The importance of family internet safety education and etiquette is often overlooked by both kids and teenagers today.
While most teens are more ahead of the curve than most parents when it comes to the internet, they may not have the knowledge to help keep them safe from online dangers and its potentially negative effects. On behalf of Girl Scouts of the USA and Microsoft Windows, I have been asked to to introduce you to a new initiative called “LMK (text-speak for “Let Me Know,”) which provides parents and girls with resources catering to both generations, and whose goal is to bridge the digital gap between parents and teenagers.

On http://lmk.girlscouts.org/, the girl-targeted website, teens can find interactive quizzes, videos, and expert articles to be informed about online safety in a fun way! Girls can comment on the site content, sharing their thoughts, experiences and perspectives on topics many teens face everyday, like cyberbullying and social networking. New content is posted periodically and will cover twelve different areas related to being a teen online today. Teens can even download an interactive patch they can share on social networking sites like Facebook, just by registering for the site at no cost.

Best of all, it’s for all teenagers, not just Girl Scouts! When parents visit http://letmeknow.girlscouts.org/, they can sign up for the e-newsletter written and developed by a team of “LMK Teen Editors” who are sharing their knowledge about the ways teens use technology and help parents understand it all. Parents will have the chance to learn need-to-know skills to keep them up to speed with what their kids are doing online too. Expert advice is also offered to give guidance on tougher issues.

If you could, please take a moment to visit these sites, learn more about the initiative, and the wonderful resources found on both http://lmk.girlscouts.org/ , and http://letmeknow.girlscouts.org/ and hopefully this will help you help your teens!

Sue Scheff: Help Support Nikki Catsouras Family - Sign the Petition

When a family loses a child, I can’t even imagine the pain they endure. How they wake up the next day, how they feel, what they feel and how they go on with life. When a family loses a child in a tragic accident it seems it could only compound all the feelings of loss.

On October 31, 2006 the Catsouras family experienced the nightmare every parent fears - losing a teen in a tragic automobile accident.

The accident was the beginning of an emotional roller coaster. If you haven’t heard about this story, it is time to take a moment and help make a difference. Nikki Catsouras, after having a horrific car accident was dead on impact, the scene was described as shocking as Nikki’s head was nearly decapitated.

Can you even imagine as a parent, learning of this? Can you imagine living through this? As a parent advocate and a parent of two young adults now, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what this family has gone through.

What follows next is nothing short of evil, in my opinion. Shortly after Nikki was buried, her parents and sisters still in mourning, the Internet creeped into their lives in the most heinous way. Photo’s of Nikki’s crime scene were posted online! Yes, their daughter’s body, or what was left of it, was going viral! Where is justice? Who in God’s name would do this?

Please take a moment to read “A Tribute to Nikki Catsouras” and sign the petition to help create reasonable protection for personal privacy on the Internet.