Turn on nearly every cartoon or child centric television show, or flip over any new child’s toy, and you will find yourself directed to a website to play games, or to log on and “interact” with your new friend. Some of these will of course feature advertisements for new toys and products, but many of these websites do have fun, educational games for different ages and levels to play. Of course, any time your children are surfing the Web, you should keep in mind some very important safety tips. These tips include:1) Monitor the online actions and activities of all children. Just because you have logged them onto an approved game site does not mean that they may not leave that site, (accidentally or not) and wind up somewhere far less child friendly.2) Make sure that you read and understand the ratings for the games on the site that you will be allowing your children to play on. Are there multiple games on the site? Are they all the same rating, or are some for older children? Discuss which games you will and will not be allowing your child to play before they blast their first alien.3) Make sure that the games that your child wants to play are free to play- and be aware that they will likely be bombarded with a number of advertisements for products and goods while on most of the free sites. (That is how they keep the site going.)4) Make sure that older children know that they should never give out personal information such as exact age, full name or address. Older children should still be monitored while online.5) Finally, make sure that the children have a time limit for playing these games- the amount of time should be directly related to their ages.Lastly, online games can be more than just fun, and well, games. There are a number of educational games that are fun, and feature your children’s favorite cartoon and television characters. Versions of your favorite games are also available in child friendly versions as well. Your older child/young teen can learn by playing role-playing or simulation games that are suitable for them. Check out the sites for the kid’s based networks, they usually feature games based on their most popular shows as well.