Over the years, most of us in Internet safety have been making this much too complicated. We thought that you needed to know everything about the Internet, all risks and all solutions. We taught parents of young children everything they needed to know about meeting strangers offline even though they are not at risk for this until their preteen years. We expected that you would appreciate how much we know about the subject and how hard we have worked to provide this information to you.

We, in short, ignored your real needs and what you were telling us. You don't want to be Internet safety experts. You don't want to devote your life to learning about the technologies and their abuses. You just want to learn how to keep your children safe online, as quickly and easily as possible.

So, I have now approached the subject differently. I have devised three easy steps that help you learn what you need to know and how to implement your informed choices for your children.

1. Find out what your children are doing online and understand the risks posed by the technologies and services you and they are using.
   
   
2. Determine what choices you have to address those risks and make the choice that works for your family.
   
   
3. Understand what technology and parental control tools exist to help you enforce those choices.

It's that simple. These three steps will help you keep your children (and your entire family) safe, secure and private online. Using this program you understand the risks your children face, not all children, set rules that work for your household and then enforce your rules. It's easy and it works.

Download this PDF guide from Yahoo! Safely.

Parry Aftab is a noted online safety and privacy expert and Executive Director of WiredSafety.org.