DORA the Explorer, Hi-5 and colour pencils - these are the kinds of things my two older daughters occupy themselves with every day.

One is 5 years old and the other is 3. And they have a 91/2-month-old sister.

Three girls will mean a million worries for me and their mother when they hit their teen years. So when I heard about Jane's case, I thought: 'Not another one.'

Masturbation, sex predators and cyber-crime are issues my girls don't have to worry about for several more years.

But I have already been thinking about them. I know I can't possibly ban them from using the computer or control whom they meet online. That would be short-sighted of me.

So, how? I really don't know.

All I know is that the computer, which now sits in a bedroom, would have to be moved into the hall, probably when the eldest enters Primary 1.

That's Step 1.

But that's not enough. Monitoring the sites they visit would be helpful.

Step 2, perhaps?

But it would only be scratching the surface. And it might even cause resentment towards me for taking up keyboard space.

Sure, I could install software to block access to certain sites.

But I want to do more.

Looking at the screen shots taken by Jane, I could not help but feel that this is the kind of guy my girls might meet online - or worse, in person - one day.

I know if someone tried something like this in front of them, I would permanently cure him of his need to get to know himself better.

But violence is not the solution.

No, knowledge and openness are better options.

My kids need to know that they can trust me to have faith in them to use technology wisely.

But first, I would have to earn their trust so that when they are old enough to set up a Facebook account (it would probably be another social networking website by then), they would share that freely with me.

As well as what they post online, who they're meeting and what their friends like to do.

To prevent them from using the Internet would only make the pull of the Net more powerful. When we make it seem unattainable, it becomes that much more attractive. Forbidden fruit and all that.

No, I want them to use the Net and know the good they can do with it.

Make friends?

Sure.

I just have to make sure they make more friends than they make mistakes.

This story was first published in The New Paper on 23 October 2008.