I have never given much consideration to children’s screen names and safety (except when my tween requested IM privileges with “CandyMan” — who, luckily, turned out to be a female fifth-grade friend and not the predator I’d conjured). So, I was all ears when a local Internet expert offered three great guidelines for safe screen names for kids:
1. Never use a name that indicates whether the child is a boy or girl. Obviously, this includes the child’s actual name.
2. Never use numbers in a screen name that could indicate age. Predators can do the math, even if the numbers don’t shout out a birthday.
3. Girls should avoid “cutsie” names, as these are often used in pornography and may attract a predator.
One of my children has at least one screen name that fails the test, so it looks like it’s time for a review. Next stop: getting a handle on passwords.