Parry Aftab, the woman who set up familyguidebook.com is an American lawyer who specialises in Internet law. As a mother of two, she was concerned for family online safety and wrote two books on the subject, A Parents' Guide to the Internet The Parent's Guide to Protecting Children in Cyberspace (both published by McGraw-Hill).
The United Nation's children's arm, UNESCO, also appointed her to head its "Children on the Internet" project for North America.
Ms Aftab has an admirably common-sense approach to perceived dangers on the Internet. "Whenever I am asked to tell people the greatest risk children face having to do with the Internet, they assume I will talk about online paedophiles, or child pornography or something along those lines. But the greatest risk our children face is being denied access to the Internet."
The site is bright and breezy, or at least the parts that work are. There are quite a lot of broken links on the site at the moment. However, the content of the working sections make it well worth visiting, especially for anyone concerned about young people's use of the web.
Internet use is divided up into three areas on this site: a green light for areas you can access safely; a red light for the darker side of the Internet; and a yellow light for areas where you need to proceed with caution.
The "Parent's Guide To The Internet" section is particularly strong, answering, in a non-jargon manner, basic questions. What is the Internet? What do you need to know to buy a computer? What's really out there? What can we do about it?
There is also a printable "Safe Surfing Permit" which is an agreement a child makes to listen to their parents; not to give out private information; and not to meet online friends in person.
The section for teachers is more about seeking suggestions than offering advice, and here the link to a teen section is broken, but overall this is a site well worth visiting.
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