Internet Risks for Foster Families Online

ABSTRACT

Foster parents and children (n = 64 families) who participated in a program to reduce the digital divide among foster children were surveyed about difficulties experienced in use of online communications. Providing Internet access to foster families increased Internet use, but was not perceived by parents or children as taking away time from other family or social relationships. A minority of parents and foster youth, however, reported a variety of problems ranging from benign arguments over access to the computer or frustration over equipment failure to serious concerns about children receiving pornography or meeting a sexual predator online. Although the majority of both parents and social workers were confident in their ability to deal with Internet-related problems, approximately one-third had low confidence in their ability to deal with foster family's Internet-related difficulties. Training foster parents on using filtering software to prevent pornography from coming into the child's experience of the Internet significantly reduced problems related to pornography when compared to foster families not in the program. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Foster care
• online safety
• Internet
• digital divide
• information technology