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Must-Have Apps for Child Safety

Safety steps that make good sense to keep away bad people

by Deirdre Reilly

Technology can be either our best friend or our worst nightmare when it comes to our kids. Every day parents unwittingly allow online dangers into their home that can rob a child of self-esteem, innocence - and in the worst cases, their life.

"Parents need to realize that to kids, the Internet is a sort of city - one that parents don't spend a lot of time in," tech genius Walter O'Brien told LifeZette. "Adults don't know this 'city,' so they don't understand it for what it is," he said. "Instagram is a city, Facebook is a city, video games are a city - there are bad people in them, but the cities are very real to kids."

O'Brien is founder and CEO of Scorpion Computer Services, Inc., and the executive producer of the CBS drama "Scorpion," whose main character is based on O'Brien himself.

The cluelessness of parents when it comes to the Internet is, in part, a generational problem, said O'Brien. Kids have often surpassed their parents in technical ability, leaving their parents at a disadvantage.

"Kids are smart," he said. "They will get around a protective firewall, or ask another kid how to get around it, or ask Google how to get around it. That's why along with online safety measures, it's very important to teach your kids good judgment, that anyone can be pretending to be anyone on the Internet, and about half of what they read on the Internet isn't true. Teach common sense, and don't let them get sucked into thinking they have a new friend just because someone 'nice' on the Internet wants their picture."

See full MomZette Child Safety article

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