Following are Internet safety guidelines offered to parents by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children:

. Never give out identifying information, including home address, telephone number or school name, in a public message, such as in chat rooms or on bulletin boards.

. Do not post photographs of children on Web sites or news groups that are available to the public, and avoid listing your child’s name and e-mail address in any public directories and profiles. Consider using a pseudonym or online nickname.

. Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with another computer user without parental permission. Remember that people online may not be who they seem.

. Never respond to messages or bulletin board items that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, threatening, or make you feel uncomfortable. Encourage your children to tell you if they encounter such messages.

. Set reasonable rules and guidelines for computer use by your children. Discuss these rules and post them near the computer as a reminder. Monitor your children’s compliance with these rules.

. Consider keeping the computer in a family room and get to know your child’s online friends just as you get to know all of their other friends.

. Get to know the Internet and any services your child uses, and become familiar with the things that you can do online.

. If someone sends you or your children messages or images that are obscene or indecent with the intent to harass, abuse, annoy or threaten, immediately report this to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline at (800) 843-5678, your Internet Service provider, local law enforcement agency, or the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force at www.mcctf.org.