By Bernice Chan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2007-12-14 19:32

Video: Mrs Jacalyn Leavitt answers netizens' questions Q&A

Children should have a balanced life between the Internet and real friends otherwise it can affect their social skills, says Mrs Jacalyn Leavitt, who gave an exclusive interview to chinadaily.com.cn on Friday.

The wife of Michael Leavitt, United States Secretary of Health and Human Services is the founder of ikeepsafe.org, an organization that promotes safe cyber surfing for children.

She started the non-profit group two-and-a-half years ago because of her concerns about children and the Internet. Her organization informs parents on how to teach their children about the risks of going online and how to protect themselves.

This issue is not only a concern in the US, but also in China where there are over 172 million Internet users, most of whom are young people.

Leavitt offers some tips to parents who should monitor their children's use of the Internet.

"We have the three keeps for parents: Keep current, keep communicating and keep checking. And these help to remind parents they need to be engaged with what their child are doing online."

Apart from helping parents guide their children safely through the cyber world, Leavitt says it's important for young people to have a good balance between surfing the Net, and real life. The length of time they spend on the Internet could affect their social skills in dealing with others.

"With a click of a mouse the world opens to them [young people]," explains Leavitt. "And it's very positive, but at times they will cling to this and not cope with responsibilities, homework, whatever they are wanting to step back from or get away from. And that is not healthy.

"If they IM, instant message [that] can be very handy, but you want your child to have real life friends and to have real life peers," she continues. "And not to just focus mainly on text messaging and IM-ing because if that is done too heavily, then they don't have the skills or they don't develop the skills to develop one-on-one real relationship skills. You want them to know that real life friends are most important and you want them to be engaged in real life."

Leavitt, a former elementary school teacher, also talked about the importance of literacy, particularly parents reading to their children, and took questions from Chinese Internet users. [Click to view video and transcript]

She was in Beijing accompanying her husband who was in China to attend the Third China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue. During her visit in the capital, Leavitt made presentations two international schools.

The author of five children's books, Leavitt showed students her latest one, Faux Paw Goes to the Games. It is about a cartoon cat called Faux Paw who visits Beijing for the Olympics Games.

The story also talks about the importance of striking a balance between time on the computer and offline. The book will be in stores in time for Christmas in the US and translated into Chinese in the near future.