Are your kids chatting with Internet freaks?

In real life you protect your children, teaching them life lesson in order to keep them safe and help them smart decisions. Teens sometimes forget those real life rules when they go online.

In chat rooms and with profile on friendship websites like MySpace, Facebook, Xanga and many others, teens often use fake or exaggerated details enhancing their personalities.

For example, breaking house rules about "talking with strangers".

That's part of the online appeal for teens...having blunt and sometimes intimate conversations sharing personal thoughts with people you don't really know. Teens think "what's the consquences?" Of course, there are many. And that's just with text chats.

If your teen also chats online using webcams, those conversations can turn even more personal and intimate...exposing teens to very real dangers they simply don't realize.

It all takes place in your own home. In your teen's bedroom.

Yes, the Internet can be a safe, educational and productive activity for teens. It should be. But, sometimes, it is not. And teens may not make the right decisions to stay safe.

Help your teens. Protect them on the internet and keep the Internet freaks out out your teen's computer...and out of your home.

Here's a YouTube video demonstrating the point:

Sex Offender Applies for School as a Boy

The top skills all Internet sex offenders possess are their ability to lie, persuade and disguise. Chat rooms are a favorite place where predators can lurk and seek their prey.

The graphic listing above (from a recent PSA campaign from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) is a common sight for any online chat room where teens like to gather.

According to a new AP report:

A school in Phoenix, Arizona alerted authorities to a 29-year-old sex offender who tried to enroll there, pretending he was just 12, in what sheriff's officials said Friday may have been an attempt to lure children into sexual abuse.

A total of four men were in custody in the case Friday on various charges, including fraud, forgery, identity theft, and failure to register as a sex offender.

Detectives learned in interviews with the men that Rodreick convinced others that he was a boy after meeting him two years ago over the Internet. Rodreick apparently shaved his body hair and used makeup to keep up the guise.

Cyberspace can pose a real threat to your teens, who are eager to form new friendships online. Twenty-five million American kids have been -- or are -- online...amd 71% of teens online have received personal messages from someone they don't know. Safekeeper -- a new PC online protection application - is specially designed to keep your kids safe when on the Internet.

For important Online Rules of Teen Safety, click here.

Safekeeper is an important new digital tool for parents helping them monitor their children and teens Internet usage and keeping them safe online. Know what you kids are saying through Safekeeper's ChatMonitor and block access to websites you don't approve.