Christian Chat: Should You Allow It?

Christian chat can have many benefits, both for you and your children. There are a number of Christian chatrooms that you may find advantageous, but as a parent, you absolutely have to be aware of online safety tips and make sure that your kids adhere to them.

Keeping your kids safe online and preventing them from viewing things that are against Christian principles can be a time consuming task if you don’t have special tools.

Increase your awareness and teach your kids computer safety…

MySpace for Moms and Dads: A Guide to Understanding the Risks and the Rewards By Connie Neal / Zondervan MySpace has become a phenomenon for social networking - especially among teens. This book immerses parents into the MySpace world to give you a complete understanding of why this is often an important aspect of a teen's life. So, no matter whether you're a seasoned computer guru or completely lost with the whole internet thing, you'll find terabytes of information to help safeguard your kids and strengthen your relationship as you begin to understand their online world.

You might find Vicki Courtney’s book Logged On and Tuned Out: A Non-Techie’s Guide to Parenting a Tech-Savvy Generation to be extremely helpful.

Logged On and Tuned Out: A Non-Techie's Guide to Parenting a Tech-Savvy Generation By Vicki Courtney / B & H Publishing Group When you were their age, it was telephones and hanging out at the mall. Now the teen social world has expanded to things like text-messaging, online chat rooms and any number of Internet and digital gadgets. Here is a resource to help you understand and help protect your tweens and teens from the dangers of this new, global world.

Stephen Arterbum and Roger Marsh also wrote a guide for parents titled Internet-Protect Your Kids: Keep Your Children Safe from the Dark Side of Technology. It addressed monitoring your kids’ activity online as well as protecting them from being exposed to pornography and predators. Even if your kids are only engaged in Christian Chat, the possibility is there anytime they are online.

Internet-Protect Your Kids: Keep Your Children Safe from the Dark Side of Technology By Stephen Arterburn & Roger Marsh / Thomas Nelson * Keep your kids from getting trapped in the Net! Learn how to monitor your children's Internet activity---and guard them from pornographic websites and sexual predators. From MySpace to chat rooms, instant messaging to blogs, Arterburn and Marsh offer practical ways to make young users safe, secure, and "web wise" whenever they're online. 192 pages, softcover from Integrity.

Get the tools for protecting your children…

SAFEEYES: Parental Control Software on CD-ROM By Provident Music Distribution Fast, effective, and reliable, the Safe EyesTM Parental Control Software is the ideal solution for online safety and internet purity. Safe Eyes makes it easy to block objectionable material, limit time spent online, monitor instant messenger chats and control peer-to-peer file sharing. With all these benefits, plus its accountability features, Safe Eyes is the ideal online protection for your entire family! Its filtering servers are refreshed daily so your Parental Controls are always up-to-date. All the settings are stored on the Safe Eyes secure servers which allows your family members to be covered regardless of which computer they use in your house. Whether you are using PC or Mac, Safe Eyes is the name you can trust.

Safekeeper Plus By Emi Cmg Distribution Safekeeper Plus is an all-in-one program that guards against online threats, with award-winning computer protection. Easy to install, easy to use.Includes Kidsafe blocker, predator alert, chat monitor, time controls, safety shield, Anti-virus protection, anti-spyware protection, a firewall, and licenses for 3 computers. Windows 2000 or XP.

Child Safe CD-ROM By Parson Technology Every child using a computer today is vulnerable to the dangers of the Internet; educate your kids and protect them online. Webroot has solutions that can help you take control. To learn more about protecting your kids, as well as yourself, visit their online community pages. Monitor Internet and computer activities: email activity, chat room sessions, web sites visited, programs run, and more.

Christian chat, online chatting and social networking do have benefits and besides that, the internet is a great source for information and education, but in Christian parenting, it is vital that you get involved in your kids’ online world.

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