Keeping Your Kids Safe While They Are Online
By Tina Barraclough

photo credit: LAYeiser

The INTERNET can be a dangerous place for your kids, if you don’t know the risks that can occur while being online. It is our jobs as parents, to know what our kids are doing when they are online. It is up to us to keep them safe in everything that they do.

Thousands of children use the INTERNET everyday without any problems at all, but we’ve all heard about the danger they could find themselves in. I am a mother ,and I always worry when my kids are online, that is why I pay close attention to what they do when online.

Here are some tips so you can be sure that your kids are safe when they are online.

1. The most Important thing you can do to keep your children safe when they are on the INTERNET is to be right there with them while they are online.

You should not let them surf the INTERNET in their bedrooms or in another room away from you. If this is not a possibilty, then make sure you are often in and out of the room to keep an eye on what is going on.

Be sure you know what your kids are doing online at all times.

2. Before allowing your children on the INTERNET ,let them know what is and what is not allowed and stick with these rules. For example, you could tell them no e-mailing, no chat rooms, or whatever guidelines you decide to set for them. Also, let them know that should they decide to break any of your rules, then they will not be allowed online anymore, until they agree to follow the rules you set for them.

3. Get involved in what your kids are doing online.

Ask them to show you some of their favorite sites. Have them show you what they like to do when they are online. This will help you determine if there are any problems or concerns that need to be addressed with them.

Another way to keep a check on which websites they have visited, click on HISTORY in your browser window.

4. Down load some filtering software.

You can find software available that can stop your child giving out personal information such as their name, address, and telephone number.

Here are a couple of filtering software you can check out:

We – Blocker

Furnishes users with free software that allows parents to monitor their children’s Internet access and filter out inappropriate sites.

Naomi Internet Filter 2.9.64

Naomi is a powerful internet filtering program for families, easy to use and totally free. Naomi is able to constantly monitor all internet connections, protecting kids from inappropriate material.

Stress to your kids is why it is important to keep such information private.

5. All kids, it does not matter how old they are, can be vulnerable when they are online.

For example, teenage girls, are at risk from men who lure them into meeting them face to face after chatting online with them for awhile.

Let your children know never, ever to arrange a meeting with someone they met online, no matter how safe it may seem to them.

6. Tell them firmly, never to pay money or agree to pay money for anything without your permission, and never to use your credit card details without your knowledge or permission.

You just never know who could somehow get a hold of your credit card details.

7. Also, be sure to warn your kids about online chat rooms for kids.

Sometimes, Adults will pretend to be kids in these chat rooms trying to lure kids into meeting them. Rather than chat rooms, I have set up AOL’s INSTANT MESSENGERProgram for my kids.

This gives them more control over who they allow to be one of their “buddies’ and they’re not nearly as visible, as they would be in actual chat rooms.

AOL INSTANT MESSENGER The INTERNET can provide hours of fun for children of all ages

We, as parents should certainly monitor what our kids are doing on the NET, put safety features in place, depending on how they will be accessing the NET. AOL allows you to set restrictions on certain sites [MSN as well], so your children can surf and be safe at the same time.

To find out about AOL:

http://aol.com

To find out about MSN:

http://www.msn.com

For more information and a listing of guide lines for keeping your kids safe ONLINE, please visit these two sites.

Safe kids.com

Here are some recommended sites for you to check out for your kids:
Computer Games for Kids

Play new games every week with characters from DISNEY

Nickelodeon – Official Site Commercial, all-kids cable station “NICKELODEON” offers a schedule and outtakes for its popular lineup of cartoons, including” Rugrats” and “Garfield”

Official home of “SESAME STREET” ,TELE TUBBIES, and PBS’s other kids shows. Play games, read jokes, and paint some of their characters

PBS Kids

Fun Brain

Interactive, Educational games (math and grammar) for children of all ages. Games include Math, Baseball, Change Maker, and Wacky tales.

Kids Games. org

Check out this collection of online games for kids of all ages.

Kids.Com

Offers Adult monitored kids chat, games like tangram, and hangman, message boards, video game cheats, contests, and prizes in a kid safe environment.

Tina M Barraclough Is A Wife And A Mother Of Five Beautiful Children. She Has Been A Stay At Home Home Mom Since September Of 2001. She Has Been Involved In Several Successful Home Based Businesses, And Has Been Very Successful With Them. She Is The Webmaster of Best Home Based Business Idea.Com Visit Her Website Today To Find Some Honest And Legit Work At Home Business Opportunities.

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Teaching Food Hygiene: Safety On The Syllabus
Source: raisingkids.co.uk

My friend’s son refuses to eat eggs because they come out of chickens’ bottoms!

At the other end of the spectrum are students who eat fortnight-old leftover baked beans from the tin and believe antibacterial chopping boards will protect them from all ills.

Now Food Technology inhabits the place cookery and domestic science once occupied in the curriculum, many parents are concerned their children are growing up without learning the basics of food hygiene and preparation.

What can you teach at home?
With many families relying on pre-packed meals, the traditional way of learning how to handle food safely and sensibly through experience is less common and schools have been forced to cut back on practical cookery through lack of resources.

Let your children get involved in making family meals. Little ones can help buttering bread and enjoy splashing about, washing up safe, plastic items. By the time they’re in their teens, some children are better chefs than their parents – just think how nice it will be to have dinner cooked for you!

Lessons in food hygiene
What are the most important points for food hygiene in the kitchen? Set a good example and start teaching the basics early. Follow these rules and even small children will soon be learning by example:

• Always wash hands, with soap (water alone will not do) before handling food, particularly if you have been to the bathroom previously. Ensure that the rest of the family also wash their hands.
• Store raw meat at the bottom of the fridge where liquids can’t drip onto other foods.
• Make sure meat and fish is thoroughly cooked to destroy bacteria such as salmonella and parasites. Chilled cooked foods, such as pre-prepared chicken, were recently found to have the highest amounts of listeria and salmonella of all foods – these should be heated until piping hot before serving.
• Small children are more susceptible to salmonella poisoning so cook eggs until the yolks are hard.
• Never cut any food (bread, fruit, vegetables) on a board that has had uncooked meat on it previously. Also use separate knives.
• Scrub wooden chopping boards scrupulously and let them air dry, and ideally use rigid plastic chopping boards.
• Defrost any foods from the freezer completely and then heat until piping hot.
• Babies’ bottles and feeding equipment should be properly sterilised until your baby is 6 months old.

Playing can stimulate the children’s brain. Children learn how to fine their skills and figure out the world through play. Realizing this, many parents nowadays outfitted their house with expensive development toys. But actually this is not necessary. Just buy toys that are multi-functional and have numerous way to play, so they don’t easily get bored with the toys. Children will enjoy more if you play together with them.

If you are looking for toys, make sure you consider about the safety. Choose toys that most suitable for your children’s age. Neglecting about the safety can cause incidents such as choking hazards. Here are some tips to buy safe toys:

• Choose battery-powered toys instead of electrical toys to avoid electrical shocks or burns.
• Choose toys with sound less than 85 decibels. Toys that exceed 100 db can cause hearing damage. Toys labeled with “intended for outdoor use only” means they emit really loud sound.
• Avoid flying objects.
• Avoid sharp edges toys.
• Avoid too tiny parts. This make cause choking hazards.
• Avoid violent videos or games.
• Choose suitable toys for your children’s age.

Be sure you supervise your toddler when he is playing.

Visit www.educationaltoysplanet.com for safe and quality educational toys.

The 10 Most Dangerous Recalled Toys
By Lindsey O’neil

More and more frequently, dangerous, defective toys-and their subsequent recall-continue to make headlines. Although dangerous toys have been produced for decades, some to have hit the market within the last 20 years have been clearly more dangerous, and deadly, than their predecessors-leading to recalls and class actions lawsuits against top toy manufacturers and sellers of these unsafe toys.

The following is LawInfo’s list of the top ten most dangerous recalled toys of the last two decades.

Aqua Dots
Produced by the Spin Master Corporation, Aqua Dots were small, colorful beads that were part of a multidimensional design craft kit. However, the chemical compound of these beads included the then unknown “date rape” drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Children who licked and ingested Aqua Dots were subject to respiratory depression, seizures and often became comatose. One child was reportedly hospitalized for five days after swallowing an Aqua Dot. Spin Master Corporation recalled 4.2 million units and suspended the toy from the market in November 2007.

Mini hammocks from EZ Sales
After 12 confirmed fatalities by asphyxiation (of children aged 5-17) and numerous reports of near-death entrapments, these nylon mini hammocks came to be known as “death cocoons.” The culprit behind the flawed design was the lack of spreader bars at either end, which would keep the hammock open when children were swinging and/or resting in them. EZ Sales recalled nearly 3 million of these products and suspended sales indefinitely in August 1996.

Fisher-Price Power Wheels Motorcycle
These very real motorbikes looked like a shiny motorized toy, but in fact were quite dangerous machines. On certain models, the accelerator jammed and became stuck, leading to crashes and accident-inflicted injuries such as lacerations, sprains and broken bones. Fisher-Price recalled 218,000 Power Wheels motorcycles and took the “toy” off the market in August 2000.

Sky Dancers Flying Dolls
These Barbie-inspired 9-inch hard plastic dolls were designed to fly but lacked reliable controls, thus launching with incredible speed in unpredictable directions. After 150 reported injuries, including temporary blindness, broken ribs and teeth, mild concussions and lacerations, almost 9 million units were recalled by manufacturer Galoob Toys and all sales suspended in June 2000.

Easy-Bake Oven by Hasbro
Easy-Bake toy ovens have been around since the 1950’s, but this Hasbro model had a clear defect: the front-loading oven would trap tiny hands that were reaching inside of it-inflicting some 77 second- and third-degree burns to children’s hands and fingers, including one 5-year-old girl who required a partial finger amputation. Hasbro recalled the oven and stopped distribution in July 2007.

Jarts Lawn Darts
Jarts (a variable of lawn darts) were heavy, metal projectiles that sharply pierced whatever they struck -including many children. Lawn darts were responsible for 6,700 injuries and four deaths in the 1980’s and were permanently banned (in all varieties) in 1988.

Snacktime Cabbage Patch Dolls by Mattel
These models from the widely sought-after Cabbage Patch line of the 1980’s and 90’s had automated jaws that would “chew” whatever was placed in its mouth. The problem: the doll didn’t stop chewing. After 35 tiny fingers were reportedly injured by the chomping doll, Mattel removed the dolls from retail shelves in 1997 (although never formally “recalling” the product), and offered 500,000 customers a full refund.

Battlestar Galactica Missile Launcher
In 1978, Mattel launched a series of Battlestar Galactica toy missile launchers known individually as the Viper, the Cylon Raider, the Scarab and the Stellar Probe. In 1979, a child reportedly died after choking on one of the missile launchers-prompting Mattel to recall all BSG models and suspend production.

The Chicken Limbo Party Game
Manufactured by Milton Bradley, The Chicken Limbo Party game lacked sturdy support poles, therefore with the slightest touch, the entire apparatus could shake and collapse on participating children (and any bystanders). After 46 reports of the game collapsing and causing subsequent injuries such as bumps, bruises, welts, chipped teeth, and one fractured foot, Milton Bradley recalled 461,000 CLP units and suspended all sales in 2006.

Clackers
Clackers, which were marketed under a multitude of other names, consisted of two glass-like acrylic balls, each about the size of plum, which swung on either end of a string. The idea was to tug on the middle of the string until the balls swung faster and faster, smacking each other above and below your hand until the motion formed a stunning arc. However, being made of glass, the balls were heavy-leading to numerous reports of injury when they hit children’s faces, and when the balls themselves occasionally shattered, causing lacerations. Clackers were pulled from the shelves in 1981 and, later that year, a mandate was issued that any future product(s) be made with foam balls and nylon cords.

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As young children get older, they start to crawl and walk around the home. Parents can guard against possible dangers by conducting a home safety evaluation from the child’s point of view. The Home Safety Council recommends that parents look at each room from their child’s eye-level and use the following tips to make homes safer for young children:

1) Supervise your young children constantly, especially around water.

2) Install sturdy baby gates at the tops and bottoms of stairs.

3) Install child safety locks on cabinets to safely store matches and lighters, chemicals, cleaners, medicines, cosmetics, and other toxic and/or caustic products.

4) Purchase cleaners, household chemicals, medications and other potentially hazardous products with child resistant packaging.

5) Post the national Poison Control Hotline (1-800-222-1222) and other emergency numbers next to every phone.

6) Install a smoke alarm on every level of your home and near sleeping areas.

7) Install toilet seat locks; turn over all buckets and store them up high, where they cannot collect standing water or be reached by children. When young children are in the bath, near a pool, a toilet or other standing water, play close attention and stay within arm’s reach of them at all times.

8 ) Test faucet water at the tap and adjust water heater to 120°F or below.

9) If your home has a pool, surround it on all sides with installed fencing and a self-latching gate.

10) Never leave a child unattended near standing water, even for a moment.

11) Locate cribs, beds, chairs and other furniture away from windows.

12) Install window locks or safety guards on above-ground windows. Be sure they have a quick-release mechanism in case of fire.

13) Keep window treatment cords and sashes tied and stored up high overhead; purchase new mini-blinds that meet safety standards.

14) Store matches, lighters, candles and other fire tools out of children’s sight and reach, preferably in a locked cabinet.