Media Center

To promote health, safety and family values, all parents understand it is important to have ‘THE’ talk with their children. Prior to discussing the “birds and bees”, parents should have a much earlier ongoing discussion to ensure their children understand and practice safe-internet conduct.

Perhaps because today’s parents have no personal experiences as children, themselves, with the many risks of the internet, this discussion is often overlooked. While a lack of personal experience and expertise deters many parents from ever approaching this topic, there are many quality resources offering assistance.

Where to start? This excellent article, Internet Safety for Kids, explains that parents who start early can ingrain Internet safety practices just as they teach their child to look both ways before crossing the street.  Although we learned from our parents the dangers of crossing the street, today’s parents need assistance to teach their children how to navigate the internet safely. The resources are available. Given the MANY risks facing our children on the internet today, today’s parents should have an ongoing safe-internet discussion with their children at an early age.

Increasing awareness about the dangerous social media environment, including social media aggression (cyberbullying, sexting, etc,), human trafficking, ramifications of liability and growing lawsuits (libel and slander), was the subject of my recent Capstone project, completed through The Wharton School of Finance.  The risks are evolving and the statistics, frightening. We believe that NOW is the time for parents to actively involve themselves in their children’s internet activity and educate them.

For more discussion, I invite you to contact me.

Kimberly A. Lucarelli, CIC

Director of Sales, PCM, Sr. Vice President

Oswald Companies

Note: This communication is for informational purposes only. Although every reasonable effort is made to present current and accurate information, Oswald makes no guarantees of any kind and cannot be held liable for any outdated or incorrect information.