Tools for adolescents

• Discuss respect and dignity and how your adolescent portrays him/herself online.
• Explain the importance of being careful with pictures your adolescent posts or sends online; reinforce that once a picture is sent, control over what happens to it is lost.
• Explain how experimenting in a public place like the Internet can have irreversible, embarrassing consequences.
• Warn your adolescent about individuals s/he chats with online who start talking about sex, puberty, ask 'weird' questions or request naked or sexually explicit pictures. Tell him/her to trust his/her instincts and block anyone who makes him/her feel uncomfortable.
• Explain to your adolescent that it's illegal to threaten someone online or offline. If someone threatens him/her online, s/he needs to tell a safe adult.
• Discuss the inaccurate representations of healthy relationships in the media, and explain the true qualities of healthy relationships.
• Tell your adolescent not to share his/her password with anyone, and that his/her password should be a combination of numbers and letters (both upper- and lower-case). Explain that pop-up ads and malicious sites appear legitimate, but that email and messenger providers would never ask for your adolescent's username and password.
• Suggest your adolescent review textED.ca, an innovative and interactive website designed to teach teens to be safe, responsible and respectful users of texting technologies