Chat with random people online

Every parent's worst nightmare is that their child will come into contact with someone that might do them harm. Kids are taught from an early age that talking to strangers is bad, and even if they don't know exactly why, they know that if someone they don't know approaches them in the street, at the school gates, or in the park, offering sweeties, a lift home or the opportunity to go and visit some cute little puppies or kittens, they should run away and tell a trusted adult immediately.

This lesson is valuable and is still relevant today, although statistics suggest that the majority of offences against children are not perpetrated by strangers, rather by people that the child already knows. Does "Stranger Danger" work online? Banning kids from talking to strangers chat with random people online online just won't work. The Internet is full of opportunities to connect with strangers, in chatrooms, on forums which encourage discussions of topics that interest our kids and on video game websites which encourage interaction between players.

If we as parents introduce a blanket ban on our kids talking to people they don't know 'in real life' then we run the risk of our kids disregarding this ban altogether, dismissing it with the rationale of 'Mum and Dad just don't get the point of the internet' which could lead to them getting into real trouble with online predators, trolls and Cyberbullies. The key is to educate children about the differences between casual online interactions and 'over sharing' information.