The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace (Paperback)

by Parry Aftab (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
A no-nonsense guide for keeping kids protected and informed on the Internet is an essential book for any family with a home computer. The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace comes highly recommended, with kudos from countless corporations, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Equally useful for long-time users and newcomers to the Internet, parents will find a wealth of useful tips presented in a friendly and entertaining manner.

Beginning with basic questions and answers about why laws are sometimes different online than they are in other commercial arenas, author Parry Aftab goes on to explain some of the fundamentals of search engines, ISPs, and e-mail accounts--experienced users can safely skip this area with no harm done. Aftab makes it clear that it is up to parents and caregivers to appropriately educate kids in online safety--while the benefits of including the Internet in your child's education are tremendous, there are some dangers (ranging from pretty minor to severe) that all family members need to be made aware of and taught how to avoid. Aftab includes a terrific list of widely approved kid-friendly sites, a solid glossary of common terms and abbreviations used in e-mail, and simple bullet-point lists outlining ways to provide protection such as passwords, backing up important files, placing your computer in a central location, and not allowing unsupervised online access until you're fully convinced they're ready for it. More than any other suggestion, teaching your kids accountability and safety is emphasized. Older children and teenagers may benefit from reading some of the personal anecdotes and interviews--such clear-cut stories are sure to make a lasting impression. --Jill Lightner

Product Description
Just about everyone agrees that certain places in cyberspace are inappropriate for children. What people don't agree on is how to keep kids from wandering into areas where they don't belong. From the ACLU to Congress, local PTAs and national teacher's organizations, the issue is devise and polarizing. Given recent events such as what happened in Littleton, Colorado, it is also becoming clear that there's more to protecting children in cyberspace than just blocking pornographic sites with filtering programs. How can parents, teachers and librarians navigate this confusing issue without overstepping legal boundaries while at the same time protecting kids from the dangers--both hidden and obvious--that abound on the Net? Internationally respected attorney and cyber-expert Parry Aftab offers a sensible, clear-cut guide to protecting children from the dark side of the Web. Based upon her self-published book A Parent's Guide to the Internet and How to Protect Your Children in Cyberspace, Aftab details the threats that lurk throughout the world wide web, from spam and chatrooms, to cyber porn and cyber stalkers, to sites that promote violence fantasy role-playing and hatred. She then goes on to detail what steps parents and teachers can and should take to keep children from accessing certain sites.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; International Ed edition (December 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071357521
• ISBN-13: 978-0071357524
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,229,073 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Parents don't get your internet account till you read this!, January 26, 2000

By	Mrs. K Leonard (Canada) - See all my reviews

Ms. Aftab has written the most comprehensive, easy to follow guide for parents or anyone about how to keep yourself and your family safe while surfing the World Wide Web. It cuts through the hype and the media presentation of the dark side of the web to really show people how to use the internet the way it was meant to be used. I have been online for over 6 years and I am a very experienced user yet I read it cover to cover and learned more than I ever could have imagined. This book is a must read, don't assume that your children know what they are doing online, read this book and learn now how to keep them safe.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank God!I don't know what I would have done without it!, March 6, 2000

By	Linda Williams (Darien, Conn.) - See all my reviews

My son was involved in a pretty scarey situation. He's fine now, chiefly because of this author, who is the top internet safety expert in the world.

He was being threatened and stalked by someone who knew where he lived and went to school. I found a site where people help parents when things go wrong online. The head of this site is a cyberlawyer who also wrote this book. I had read about her in Readers Digest and saw her on the Today show, and knew that she worked with the FBI on finding child molesters in cyberspace, and saw that 20/20 recommended her site, cyberangels.org, for help in cyberstalkings.

I wrote her in a panic. She answered my e-mail right away, personally, and helped us, personally. I'll never forget her or how she made us feel. Like we were the most important people on earth and she had nothing else to do but help us.

I bought her first book last year and this book as soon as I heard about it on television last month. I bought one for my sister and for my two brothers too. I don't think any parent should have to go through what we did, and I don't know what I would have done without help from this incredible woman. Her book is the best! and my son now knows not to give away personal information to strangers online. And I know how to teach him to use the Internet safely. She reminds us constantly, that even if they know more than we do about the technology, we are still the parents. Hurray for people like this. Parry is a real angel, not just a cyberangel. Buy her book. Buy several. The money helps support the kids internet safety programs she runs. And its fun to read.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a teen and this book helped save my girlfriend, April 12, 2001

By A Customer

I read this book when my mother bought it for me and my friends to read. I was very interested in what this person said about online safety and teens. Most talk about how terrible the internet is, but she thinks it's great for teens as long as we use it following safety rules.

My girlfriend was chatting with a boy she met online. He sent her pictures and said he loved her. She even talked to him on the phone. When he asked to meet her at the mall, I told her about the stories I read in this book, and gave her the book to read.

She didn't meet him after she read the stories about bad men who tried to trick girls into meeting them offline.

Her parents found out and found out that this boy wasn't really a boy.

Mrs. Aftab helps keep teens safe. I want to work for her group and help other teens.

Thank you Mrs. Parry Aftab for caring about teens. we love you!

a sixteen year old girl