When they become teenagers it is especially difficult to protect our children online. Being a teenager is hard for them and for you. It is a time of growing both physically and emotionally. It is a time of increasing self-awareness and comparison with feelings of inadequacy and a need for attention, affection and love always close to the surface. It is a time of extreme vulnerability to predators of all kinds and a time of a parents' greatest challenge.

I would not want to re-live my teens. And I certainly would not want to go through the teenage years in these times. There are more pressures on our children today. Life is faster, more exciting. Everything is instant. New electronic gadgets, fashions and fads spread literally with the speed of light via television and the internet. Parents are really challenged to keep up with it all.

But even if we can keep up with it, that is not good enough. In order to protect out children online, we have to keep ahead of it. We have to be pro-active rather than simply reactive to the outside forces vying for our teenagers' attention.

And to do that, we need to know a little about how they react to the pressures that are all around them.

Early Teen Years
Except for the shows directed to them in particular such as Hannah Montana, they stop watching as much TV. Use of other media like the internet, cell phones and instant messaging increase. Hormones are raging, but fewer than 10% of this age group actively search for pornography on the internet.

Online bullying is one of the prime issues in this age group. Harassment of this type ranges from kids asking other classmates their bra size to personal Web pages devoted to voting on the school slut. For the most part it is just some kids being mean and taking pleasure in making others uncomfortable.

Tell your teens not to take part in this. Make them aware that anything they say or do online is not private. It can come back as an embarrassment when it is copied and passed around and it can even end up in a law suit. No teen wants to be embarrassed. Understanding the possible consequences is often enough to stop an activity before it starts.

Teens share more than music online. They share games, pictures, video, sound files and can easily find thousands of pornographic images and videos. You should check the computer's hard drive for image files to make sure what kinds of things are being shared. And decide before hand what you will do if you discover objectionable material.

Talk to your teens. Teach them some of the key phrases predators use: "I'm all alone. My parents don't pay attention to me. Teachers hate me." Pedophiles pretend to be a child and say such things to arouse sympathy. You need to have a plan in place to report such approaches to authorities.

Latter Teen Years
Most families provide a computer for their children in this age group. Many times it is required for school. By this time, some may be searching for online material on sexuality. Assisting your teen to find sound sexuality information on birth control, abstinence other subjects is vital. They will seldom turn to you to ask, so lead the way in this.

Traffickers of porn send out millions of solicitations and use "pop-up" advertising to get the attention of older teens. Your teen needs to understand and be taught to ignore and delete this information immediately.

Summary
Older teens are especially vulnerable to online predators. In order to protect them from themselves, if you will, we need to employ your first line of defense. This is to talk to them. And then talk some more. Gain their confidence and let them see that you can be a trusted confidant as well as a protective parent.

In order to protect your children online when you are not around, consider installing a good parental control and monitoring software. They are relatively cheap but are priceless when it comes to protecting your children. One in particular I can recommend for your review is PC Tattletale.

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