Jody Melbourne's six tips for parents

1. If anything criminal happens on the Internet, people can be traced. Anonymity can be reversed by involving the police.

2. Bullying online can escalate very quickly. Once something is online, it can go global quickly and can last forever.

3. Parents need to understand not how the technology works, but what it means to their children. They need to interact with their kids about it.  Being time poor is no excuse.

4. Parents should encourage learning and exploration. Kids need to fall of the bike and scratch their needs a few times to learn what to expect. Let kids take a few scrapes.

5. Isolation can be the biggest problem. The biggest danger is damage to the self-esteem of an impressionable young person. Not having someone to talk to is one of the biggest frustrations that a kid can face.

6. Don't be a bogeyman that the kids try to circumvent all the time.

What parents can tell their children

1. Expect duplicity on the Internet. Schoolyard bullying is amplified by technology, so traditional bullying like untrue rumours and embarrassing photos can spread faster and further online.

2. Respect your own privacy and take care of the information you put online. Once published, it can go global in minutes and be there forever. It then belongs to someone else and it is out of your control.

3. Report any disturbing online behaviours to administrators of Web 2.0 sites such as MySpace or FaceBook. These administrators do take it seriously. You need to alert them about harassment and abuse so they can do something about it.

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