Promoting Safer Surfing -- Online

You've probably read stories about online bullying (we covered it on Tonic last month) and other issues that arise with kids and teenagers on the Internet. That said, some statistics from this PR Newswire release surprised me. "In a year's time, approximately one in three teens experience online harassment and 32 percent of teens clear their browser history to hide what they do online from their parents."

Numbers like that highlight how important a new partnership is between the Boys & Girls Club of America (BGCA) and Sprint. This partnership will "promote online safety resources for kids, teens and parents." Sprint's Web-based resource, 4NetSafety, provides tools covering problems that kids and teenagers can experience on the Web and promote talking about how to be safer while online.

As part of the partnership, the BGCA's 4.5 million youth members will have access to these tools, through "membership and community outreach." Sprint is also providing the organization with funding to produce added safety information, to educate both members and their parents.

According to Dan Rauzi, senior director of technology services and programs at BGCA, as quoted in the release, "The Internet can be a wonderful resource for kids, but it has always been our goal to teach our youth how to navigate the Web safely and appropriately."

A survey of young people by BGCA revealed the following: "More than half of those surveyed said their parents never ask them about whom they are talking to on the Internet and 55 percent said their parents never surfed the Internet with them."

Parents have a tough balancing act -- knowing they should trust their kids but also knowing they have to stay as involved as they can with the lives of their children. Hopefully 4NetSafety can help parents and kids find a better balance.

Photo courtesy of MrsGooding, via Flickr