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As parents we are so protective of our children. When your baby cuts his first tooth, you fret with him; when he takes his first steps, you are by his side ready to catch him if he falls. When he goes out into the world as an individual the first time be it to a play school or a nursery school, you insist on reviewing and vetting the schools on your shortlist to choose the best one. In fact, I We wouldn't be wrong in saying that you leave no stone unturned to keep him safe from every foreseeable threat.

As a net savvy mom or dad, you proudly introduce your little toddler to the wonders of the Internet on the iPad, Tab or laptop. Whether it is creating projects with the wow-factor to impress the teacher at the play school or deciding the theme, cake and menu for your little one next birthday party, you and your little one delve deeper into the mysteries of the Internet.

Naturally, you are there to guide and supervise your child on his solo online trip. As a conscientious parent who has read of the dangers of the Internet, you draw out a plan listing out what sites your child should visit, what games he or she should download and play, how much time he should spend on the net and so on.

Before you know it, your little one is on his way to becoming a social animal. He is eager to move onto social networking sites like most of his friends. Although you are aware of the dangers related to chat forums and the restrictions about age, your friends tell you it is the done thing to open an account for your children so that they can connect with their friends. After all, this is the digital era and they are digital citizens!!

ith time, your children growing competence with the digital media lulls you into a sense of false security. As their fingers fly deftly over the keys, the unseen dangers lose their ability to scare you. Soon you start to wonder whether you really need to supervise your children every time they go online maybe a peek now and then would be enough - after all you have told them what to be careful of - and there are a million things to be done for the dinner you are throwing tonight !

Soon your little youngsters are satisfying their curiosity, handling searches themselves, browsing through sites that sound interesting, sharing photographs, posting messages on chat forums, and downloading the latest games and audio-video files. Your hearts swell with motherly pride as you brag about their technical expertise and accomplishments.

But how safe is your child really every time he or she goes online? How do you know that your child will not land up seeing inappropriate adult content by inadvertently misspelling a word during an innocuous Google Search operation?

Or that the holiday plans that your child uploads for his friends will be limited to that audience only and will not land up in the hands of some pedophiles? That the new friends your child is chatting with are actually who they claim they are?

Are you very sure that the horrors crawling around in cyberspace will not make their way into your computer every time you connect to the Internet? Or along with the files your child downloads? That they will not be hiding in your computer - looking for a way to get information about who your child is, where he is located, what his preferences are - be it the videos he downloads or the social networking sites he chats on?

A lot has been written and spoken about online security, but we tend to think, Not me!! I am secure because I am net savvy and have warned my kids about what not to do.This false sense of security can be our undoing.

Does this mean you should throw away or hide your iPads, Tablets, laptops and smartphones? Or stop using the Internet and its myriad applications altogether?

No! Certainly not!! The idea is to make you aware of the types of threats that exist and the problems that your child can get into unknowingly. More importantly, what do we do now that we know that these problems exist?