I have to agree with Shel and Oceanbreeze. It is scary and we are always going to worry about our children. I am always worrying about my child's safety. So I prefer to educate her and protect her and teach her not to go into anybody house without my permission. I also rather do a background check on the person to find out if he or shee have a crimal record. Also teach children danger of sex offender online as well. Most parents are aware that the Internet is a place where children may be exposed to inappropriate material. Although this can be the case, by far the greatest danger to children on the Internet is interactive communications between people. Make no mistake, there are people who use the Internet looking for opportunities to contact children. When they do, they can be extremely manipulating in getting the child or young person to bend to their will. So to avoid kids against sex offenders, here are way to protect your children.
1. Do not give out personal information such as first and last name, address, telephone number, parent's names, work address or telephone number, or the name and location of their school, church, clubs etc. Teach your child or teen to always be thinking about what identifiers could be used to find them.
2. Do not allow children or teens to send an on-line friend a self picture or other visual identifiers such as pictures of their house, school etc.
3. Children and teens should be made aware of the "private areas" of their bodies (the area of the body covered by the bathing suit) and that not only does NO ONE has the right to touch them in that area, NO ONE has the right to talk to them about that area on-line. Even someone that seems like a great friend on-line may attempt this inappropriate behavior. Teaching your child this fact goes a long way toward giving them the power to resist.
4. Encourage children and teens not to respond to any messages that are mean or in anyway make them feel uncomfortable. Your child or teen holds no responsibility to continue talking to someone online. If they are being treated inappropriately they should disconnect the chat immediately.
5. Develop and discuss with children and teens household rules for going online. Decide upon the time of day that they can be online, the length of time they can be online, and appropriate areas for them to visit. Consider purchasing Internet filtering software that can greatly reduce the chance of their exposure to inappropriate material. Internet filtering software should not, however, give parents a feeling of ultimate security. Although these programs do filter many inappropriate sites, they do not filter against inappropriate chatting online.
6. Do not trust that people on the Internet are really who they represent themselves to be. Remember that many on-line predators pretend to be people that they are not and will often take the persona of someone who would be of interest to a child. The on-line predator will carefully construct their role to attract victims into on-line sexual encounters and/or real life meetings. Children should be warned that often, the person who they think they "know" on the Internet, they may not know at all. Warn them that there are "red flags" to remember about on-line friends. If the person just happens to like everything they do, is always supportive and always available, they should be concerned that the person is not being truthful. One way to test this is to offer inaccurate information themselves and tell the person that they like something that they actually do not like at all. Look at the on-line friends response. Do they continue to agree and claim they like the thing too?
7. Parents should know who their children's online friends are. Warn children and teens that if a "friend" is telling them to keep secrets from parents they are most likely dangerous.
8. Always maintain open, honest, constant communication with children and teens about their experiences on the Internet. Talking to your child or teen about their daily experiences on the Internet will open the door and encourage them to tell you if they encounter any material and/or persons which make them feel uncomfortable. Child predators are experts at exploiting the natural tensions between parents and children and will seek out children and teens who are having difficulties at home.
9. Do not allow children or teens to personally meet with anyone they befriend online without first checking with their parents. Although face to face meetings are not recommended, if a meeting is believed to be legitimate and safe, (perhaps after the parent has chatted on-line with the parent of the friend) take the added precaution of meeting the on-line friend in a public place accompanied by two parents or other responsible adults. Do not give this person a home telephone number until AFTER your child has met them and the on-line friend is legitimate. Providing a telephone number over the Internet is akin to providing your home address.
10. Trust your instincts. If someone is "too good to be true", they probably are just that.
11. Research your options, call your provider, find out more about your system and how you can make it work for you. For example, many Internet chat programs have a log function which will record in the computers hard drive all communications between your computer and others. This log can be reviewed by parents when deciding if an on-line friend is safe. Are things being discussed that are inappropriate for your child or teen and friends?
:jaw::-o
GTM!
. However - it's best to diffuse this situation peacefully and harmlessly in front of your children because in their eyes - they'll see you as a crazy mom/dad beating up a very nice man. 
