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The thought of their child beginning to use the internet is a scary thought for most parents because the Internet is not always a safe place. However, the Internet is an absolutely invaluable asset that kids will have to master for school and social networking. So it is important to ask yourself when your child will be old enough to use the Internet responsibly.
In most cases, children will be introduced to the internet at their school library if they have not been introduced to the internet at home. Teachers will have computers available for online research giving kids the option to use the Internet for book reports of projects. If your child has mentioned that they are using the internet at school then it is probably ok for your child to start using the internet at home as well.
However, there is a difference between your child using the internet for school research and building a facebook or myspace page. While building social networking profiles are a great way for kids to stay connected there are risks with allowing your kids to have a page. The best thing that you can do in this scenario is to talk with your child about why they want to create the page, who they going to be talking to, and what they are going to have posted on their page. It is also wise to create your own page and become a friend of your child’s that way you can see exactly what they are doing online.
