One of the main concerns of parents and teachers is to facilitate an environment where children can make use of the resources technology has to offer, such as Internet, in a safe way.

 Numbers around the world point to the fact that abuse performed against minors via Internet is rising, and that the age group more vulnerable to these acts is between 11 and 15 years. Only in the United States, in 2008, somewhere around 7% of teenagers between 12 and 14 years have received Internet messages soliciting nude pictures of themselves[1]

 One of the most common forms of child abuse on the net is known as “child grooming[2]”. Some of the indicators that parents and teachers can detect as signs of a minor being object of this type of abuse are:

1. Spending too much time online.

2. Mood swings (irritability, excessive stealth and privacy demands, anxiety, sadness).

3. Low school performance.

 However, and despite these situations, the benefits that the correct and safe use of Internet brings to the education, entertainment, collaborative work[3] and communication in general, should not be underestimated: e-mail, chats[4], forums, social networks[5], wikis[6], etc.

At Intel® Learning Series[7] we are concerned about offering parents and teachers content administration and Internet browsing tools that confer a safe space for children to learn, collaborate and play. Such is the case of Parent Carefree[8], an integral element of the software stack included in the Intel-powered classmate PC[9], which lets parents and teachers configure access not only to applications, but also to web pages that children can and cannot visit, besides managing the amount of time that children and students can spend using their classmate PCs. Also, Parents Carefree stores information about children’s use patterns. This information can be reviewed in the form of reports or screen snapshots that capture the applications and e-mail addresses that the child is using at the moment the system gathers said information.

On top of the options that Parents Carefree offers, it is necessary to promote an education among our children and young ones that can guarantee their information’s confidentiality and the correct use of communication channels such as Internet. To that end, it’s convenient that parents and teachers take into consideration the following suggestions:

 1. Talk to children to know what they did or watched while they were online.

2. Try to know whom children talk to on chats and social networks.

3. Establish clear rules about the use of the computer (time for learning, time for playing, time for Internet browsing, etc.).

4. Talk to children about the importance of keeping personal information (name, age, address, etc.), safe and confidential.

5. Guide children around the problems that can arise by clicking on unsafe links or by downloading contents that have not been confirmed as coming from a reliable source.

6. Promote children’s trust in us by listening to them before criticizing, reprehending or punishing them.