by Kate Willoughby Hall, CEO/Founder, Richmondmom.com 
Recently we published an article about the dangers of Facebook and other social media for children. We wanted to get some perspective from a local educational leader about how cybersafety is addressed in schools, and were lucky enough that Jim Astrove of St. Catherine’s School weighed in for us on the issue:
My parents had it easy when I was a child. They knew my friends, our neighborhood and where I was at any given time. In today’s world technology, among other things, makes this a bit more complicated. So how do we love, secure and protect our children when friends are virtual and the Internet allows for them to be anywhere at anytime?
First, it’s important to understand the advantages of our Internet-based, social networking world. It affords us grand opportunities and new experiences. It’s how we help shape this all for our children that creates the safe environment for them to learn and grow.
Understanding rules and guidelines is essential. For instance, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail all require that users be at least 13 years of age. Learn about the different privacy settings for your own protection and that of your child. Make sure you understand any legal ramifications involved including online and even texting.
Once this is done, setting up parameters for usage, time limits and creating a level of cooperation based on love, trust and safety will make the 21st Century a safe and fun place for families to explore in the cyber world.
Some simple guidelines:
• Sit down with your child and discuss rules while enforcing that these cyber rules your family will follow are borne from love and family understanding.
• Set time limits and set which sites are OK and which are not. Any website that requires a user name and/or password needs a parent’s permission and the parent must have both user name and password. Know your child’s contacts and online friends.
• Schedule regular computer sit downs where your child shows you some of the things he or she has been doing online. You can even show your child a thing or two as well.
At St. Catherine’s School we constantly work on cyber safety, from classroom lessons to pages on our website devoted to this integral topic. It’s an ever-changing and evolving lesson that always needs new thought and action.
Jim Astrove is the Directory of Technology at St. Catherine’s School in Richmond, Va. St. Catherine’s is an all-girls, junior kindergarten-12th grade college preparatory school.
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