Following are some helpful links to help keep the Internet safe for your child.
Links
- CyberTipline
The Congressionally-mandated CyberTipline is a means for reporting crimes against children including:
- Possession, manufacture, and distribution of child pornography
- Online enticement of children for sexual acts
- Child prostitution
- Sex Tourism Involving Children
- Extrafamilial Child Sexual Molestation
- Unsolicited Obscene Material Sent to a Child
- Misleading Domain Names
- Misleading Words or Digital Images on the Internet
Reports may be made 24-hours a day, 7 days a week online at www.cybertipline.com or by calling 1-800-843-5678.
- Inhope
INHOPE Hotlines offer the public a way of anonymously reporting Internet material including child sexual abuse material they suspect to be illegal. The Hotline will ensure that the matter is investigated and if found to be illegal the information will be passed to the relevant Law Enforcement Agency and in many cases the Internet Service Provider hosting the content.
- Utah Do Not Contact Registry
Protect Your Family's Addresses
The Utah Child Protection Registry is a free program provided by the State of Utah that helps you stop adult-oriented solicitations from being targeted at you and your family. The program allows you to protect:
- E-Mail Addresses
- Mobile Phone Numbers
- Instant Messenger IDs
- Fax Numbers
Companies and marketers that send adult-oriented messages, such as those promoting pornography, alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, and gambling are required to screen their mailing lists with the State of Utah and remove registered addresses and numbers before they send their solicitations. Marketers that fail to remove registered addresses face felony charges as well as substantial civil and criminal fines.
Internet Chat Acronyms
- AcronymFinder
With more than 1,000,000 human-edited definitions, Acronym Finder is the world's largest and most comprehensive dictionary of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms. Combined with the Acronym Attic, Acronym Finder contains more than 5 million acronyms and abbreviations. New! You can also search for more than 850,000 US and Canadian postal codes.
- NetLingo
With more than 82 million people texting regularly, it's no wonder you've seen this cryptic looking code! Commonly used wherever people get online -- including IMing, SMSing, cell phones, Blackberries, PDAs, Web sites, games, newsgroup postings, in chat rooms, on blogs -- these abbreviations are used by people to communicate with each other. The actual definition of an acronym and text shorthand is here.
Internet Filters
- K9 - FREE Internet filtering software
K9 Web Protection is a free Internet filter and parental control software for your home Windows or Mac computer. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.
- Computer Cop
ComputerCOP is proud to have been chosen as a G.R.E.A.T. (Gang Resistance Education and Training) vendor. ComputerCOP is the only software company to have been given such a distinction by this highly acclaimed Justice Department program.
- Content Protect
ContentWatch, headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is an innovative company focused on delivering Internet management solution for families, schools, businesses and government. It is a world leading provider of Internet filtering and management solutions with customers in more than 157 countries. It is available in English, Spanish, Turkish and Japanese. With over 300,000 users in Turkey alone and partnerships in Australia, Japan, and the UK, Net Nanny has proven its global market appeal.
- CyberPatrol
CyberPatrol is a pioneer and leader in the Parental Control software market.
Launched in 1995, CyberPatrol is one of the most trusted named in parental controls software. The CyberPatrol products are specifically developed for ease of use to help protect families and businesses from threatening online activity. - Cybersitter
CYBERsitter actively filters search queries depending on the filters you have selected. CYBERsitter also has a "strictness" setting that lets you adjust how sensitive you want CYBERsitter to be when a user searches using a search engine. The strictness feature has several levels that allow you to set different levels for children, teens, and adults.
- Safe2Read
Safe2read allows you to allocate everyone in your family their own email account, with a level of automatic supervision appropriate to their age. You need to decide ONCE if each of your child's email friends is suitable - after that you are only alerted when strangers come calling. This works with ANY internet provider.
Prevention Sites
- Child Lures Prevention
Our mission is to help ensure the personal safety of children and youth through increased awareness, education, advocacy and action. Our goal is to prevent all forms of child victimization by teaching families, professionals and other community members how to recognize, interrupt and report inappropriate situations before abuse occurs.
- The Children's Partnership
The Children's Partnership works to ensure that all children—especially those at risk of being left behind—have the resources and the opportunities they need to grow up healthy and lead productive lives.
- Crimes Against Children Research Center
The mission of the Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) is to combat crimes against children by providing high quality research and statistics to the public, policy makers, law enforcement personnel, and other child welfare practitioners. CCRC is concerned with research about the nature of crimes including child abduction, homicide, rape, assault, and physical and sexual abuse as well as their impact.
- CyberSmart
CyberSmart! fosters 21st century skills to increase student engagement and prepare students to achieve in today's digital society.
- DMOZ Open Director Project
This link offers several additional sites for internet safety directed specifically at kids and teens
- Internet Keep Safe Coalition
The Internet Keep Safe Coalition (iKeepSafe), established in 2005, is a 501(c)3 nonprofit international alliance of more than 100 policy leaders, educators, law enforcement members, technology experts, public health experts and advocates. Through this network of support, iKeepSafe tracks global trends and issues surrounding digitally connected products and their affect on children. This research drives the continuous creation of positive resources for parents, educators and policymakers who teach youths how to use new media devices and platforms in safe and healthy ways.
- iSAFE America
i-SAFE Inc. is a leading publisher of media literacy and digital citizenship education materials and programming with worldwide distribution channels. Founded in 1998 and supported by the U.S. Congress and various executive agencies of the U.S. government, i-SAFE is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and empowering youth (and others) to safely, responsibly and productively use Information and Communications Technologies (ICT).
- Megan’s Law
As a result of a new law, this site will provide you with access to information on more than 63,000 persons required to register in California as sex offenders. Specific home addresses are displayed on more than 33,500 offenders in the California communities; as to these persons, the site displays the last registered address reported by the offender. An additional 30,500 offenders are included on the site with listing by ZIP Code, city, and county. Information on approximately 22,000 other offenders is not included on this site, but is known to law enforcement personnel.
- SafeKids.com
SafeKids.com is one of the oldest and most enduring sites for Internet safety. It’s creator, Larry Magid, is the author of the original 1994 brochure, “Child Safety on the Information Highway” and is also co-director of ConnectSafely.org and a technology journalist.
- SafeTeens.com
SafeTeens.com is a place for teens and their parents to learn safe, civil and responsible use of the Internet. It’s operated by technology journalist Larry Magid who also operates SafeKids.com and is co-director of ConnectSafely.org
- WebWise Kid
For more than ten years, we have been providing unique and effective resources to equip young people to safely use and enjoy the latest technologies. Our programs prepare kids to be their own first lines of defense so they can confidently explore the best that the Internet has to offer. To date, more than 10 million middle school and high school students from all 50 states have participated in our programs.
Primary Resources
- www.netsmartz.org
NetSmartz Workshop is an interactive, educational program of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children® (NCMEC) that provides age-appropriate resources to help teach children how to be safer on- and offline. The program is designed for children ages 5-17, parents and guardians, educators, and law enforcement. With resources such as videos, games, activity cards, and presentations, NetSmartz entertains while it educates.
- http://www.ncmec.org/
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, (NCMEC), is a private, (501)(c)(3) nonprofit organization which was created in 1984. The mission of the organization is to serve as the nation’s resource on the issues of missing and sexually exploited children. The organization provides information and resources to law enforcement, parents, children including child victims as well as other professionals.
- www.pollyklaas.org/internet-safety/internet-pdfs/PollingSummary.pdf
View the Polly Klaas® nation wide teen Internet poll results
- Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website
The Dru Sjodin National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW), coordinated by the U.S. Department of Justice, is a cooperative effort between jurisdictions hosting public sex offender registries (“Jurisdictions”) and the federal government and is offered free of charge to the public. These Jurisdictions include the 50 states, U.S. Territories, the District of Columbia, and participating tribes. The Website provides an advanced search tool that allows a user to submit a single national query to obtain information about sex offenders; a listing of public registry Web sites by state, territory, and tribe; and information on sexual abuse education and prevention.
- http://www.k9webprotection.com/
K9 Web Protection is a free Internet filter and parental control software for your home Windows or Mac computer. K9 puts YOU in control of the Internet so you can protect your kids.
