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Instant Messaging

Instant messaging is like chat, except that it's usually a one-on-one experience instead of a group activity. In some ways that's safer if the person the child is messaging is a friend or relative. But it can be dangerous if it's a stranger. Unlike in some chat rooms, there is never anyone else there to monitor activity, so when your child is messaging another person it's as if the two of them are together in a private room.