The Risks to Your Children:
Some risks that your children may encounter are:
1) They have access to information to violent-oriented websites such as how to construct bombs or websites dedicated to hatred and intolerance. They can browse and by chance come across pornographic sites or adult-oriented chat rooms where pedophiles may be lurking.
2) Excessive use of the Internet can lead to social withdrawal, declining grades, missing school classes, lethargy and belligerence and opposition to you as a parent and other authorities.
3) They may give away too much information online in the chat rooms or via instant messaging and disclose where they live, what school they go to, what time you are at work and, consequently, endangering their lives and other family members.
4) Your children may encounter harassment and bullying online. This could be via email, chat rooms, instant messaging and cell phones. Most often bullying is caused from other youngsters.
5) Many children use peer-to-peer software to download free music, games and other files. However, these files are from other unknown users from around the world. Some of these users use this medium to transmit viruses and spyware that could jeopardize the security system of the computer. If this is a shared computer in the household which often times it is then it should be a concern to your privacy as well.
6) Sometimes, financial information is given away such as the parent’s credit information.