LCSO Offers Parent Classes on Internet Safety

You know your kids are using the computer and their smartphones -- but do you really know what they're up to online?

The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office is helping parents find answers to these kinds of questions and others as it continues a two-part course series "Internet Safety: What Parents Need to Know" in several locations over the next few weeks.

Keeping up with the latest technology and discussing it with children and teens is a challenge that gives some parents anxiety, LCSO says.

The course "will help introduce parents to basic Internet safety as well as some advanced techniques to help keep their children safe while online and using technology," the office said in a release.

It will discuss "social networking, sexting/texting, cell phone technology and features, laptops vs. desk top pc’s, current trends, predatory behaviors, PC and console gaming and Monitoring Techniques," among other topics.

Parents can also be introduced to the ComputerCop program, a software that allows parents "to view and permanently delete potentially harmful images and information that have been downloaded on any home computer."

LCSO released the following schedule of upcoming sessions. All begin at 7 p.m.

• Wednesday, Freedom High School (Part I)
• Thursday,  Freedom High School (Part II)
• Dec. 4 Woodgrove High School (Part I)
• Dec. 5Woodgrove High School (Part II)
• Dec. 10 John Champe High School (Part I)
• Dec. 12 Mercer Middle School (Part II)

The class is only open to parents, the office says, because of the graphic content of some of the lessons.