The things we do to make sure our children stay safe are constantly changing too. When they crawl, we learn how to keep things off the floor. Then, they pull themselves upright, we have to keep them safe from the new dangers at eye level. Training wheels have to be removed, and we have to watch while they pedal away (generally into the nearest tree). We watch their sugar intake, make sure they take their vitamins and keep small items out of their mouths.

That's our job, as parents. So the tried and true warnings, passed down from generation to generation, are repeated... "don't talk to strangers...,""come straight home from school...,""don't provoke fights...,""don't tell anyone personal information about yourself..."and "we need to meet your friends..." This is familiar territory after all. We know the dangers our kids face in the street or at the mall or in the school yard, because we faced them.

As in any large community, there are dangers our children encounter in cyberspace, too. But, since our children know more than we do about cyberspace, we worry about how we can teach them to avoid those dangers. Don't panic... those dangers can be managed using the same old warnings we've always used. We just need to translate them into cyberspace terms...