Your children live in an online world. It’s a world filled with new experiences and information, things to do, things to learn, people to meet. The internet is almost fantastical in the way it’s connected people from across the world to each other.

But like the real world, the internet has its dark corners, and its monsters.

These monsters live immersed in the same online world your children live in. And they probably know a lot more about the internet, and what your children are doing, than you do.

• 1 in 5 kids have reported being sexually solicited online

• Of those kids, only 1 in 25 told their parents

Do you know what a blog is? IMing? MMORPGs? How about the letters POSTTYL? Your children know what these words mean. And so do the thousands of adult predators that stalk the internet every day, targeting children.

There are monsters in your computer. Some are called predators, some called cyberbullies, some called hackers and phishers. But really, they are monsters. If you don’t know what’s going on with your children and the internet, you need to find out now. Because what you don’t know can hurt your children.

Things you can do now:

• Browse this Parent Center and educate yourself.
• Read through the Teen Center with your child.
• Encourage your child’s school to distribute Social Safety packets.