Mary Ellen Handy had a painful crash course in the dangers of the Internet. The trouble started in her freshman year of high school after a dispute over a boy’s affections. Once she began dating him, a jealous girl flooded her computer with a stream of nasty messages.
“She’d say, ‘I hate you; leave the school,’ and she called me every name in the book,” says Handy, now an 18-year-old senior in New Jersey. With the speed and ease of the Internet, her classmate soon recruited 20 others to bully Handy online. “It was like a ripple effect,” she says. As the ordeal dragged on for months, she dreaded going to school, felt physically ill and saw her grades tumble.
No doubt, the Internet can be an extremely useful tool for young people. But instant messaging, chat rooms, emails and social networking sites can also bring trouble – from cyberbullying to more serious Internet dangers, including exposure to sexual predators.
How savvy are you about keeping your child or teenager safe online? Follow these tips to protect your kids from the 4 major dangers of the Internet.
