It really does not take much effort to find your child on the internet. Young adults and children find the social networks on the internet a great place to find friends and socialize with other that have similar interests. The problem here however is that many times our children friend people they do not even know thinking that since they are a friend of someone else they have in common it is okay. Once they have befriended them the “new friend” now has access to all of their information. It does not take much to stalk them soon after that.

Cyber-stalking can hurt them emotionally and it should be at all costs a parents duty to prevent this from happening. We as parents need to teach our children how to protect themselves and to recognize cyber-stalkers. Parents can do this by teaching their children to be careful of messages they put out on the web and checking to see if there are web pages put out by others that may be hurtful to your child. We also need to teach our children to respect the internet and to treat others the same way they would want to be treated, harmless information can be construed incorrectly causing offense and the ability for a cyber-stalker to lash out. We also need to stress to our young adults not to respond to heated emails and that if they receive a email that is inappropriate to report to their parents and as parents we can then contact our internet service provider to help block this person. These are a few steps that can help prevent cyber-stalking.

The best way to protect our children from cyber-stalking is to communicate the dangers of it and what to do if it happens to them. We want our children to enjoy their online experience but we also want and need them to be able to do it safely.