Host: What information should children never divulge online?

Nancy McBride: Children should never divulge too much personal information about themselves online, meaning their names, their phone numbers, their home addresses, but they also need to remember not to divulge too much about themselves in photos or videos that they post online, because another thing that s important to remember is once it s online, it s on there for ever. You can take it down, you can try to remove it, but it still may be archived somewhere, and what kids don t think about is that what they put online today may hurt them later when they are trying to get into a school, they are trying to get a job, they are trying to enter in the armed services; a lot of college recruiters, employers look at all this information to see what these kids have been doing online and sometimes what kids put online can put them in a potential risk situations that they are engaging a behavior and not understanding the consequences. So if they put risk A or provocative pictures or videos online, someone may approach them and someone may ask them to get together in an offline situation or ask them to do other things online that they really know, they don t want to do and that aren t good. So, they need to make sure that if this happens to them, to tell a trusted adult or a parent or guardian that they have been approached by somebody, it's called online enticement. The parent or guardian needs to stay calm, if their child comes and tells them this, don t frighten your child, I am going to take away all your computer privileges, you are never going online again ; that s not a very effective response, because we know kids have so many other ways to get online. So, very calmly discuss the situation with your child, let your internet service provider know, and if appropriate, let the appropriate law enforcement agency know as well.