This is the first in a series of blog entries to help guide parents in setting up restrictions for their children who play video games on a game console. Whether that is the PS3, Xbox, Wii or Nintendo DS, etc.

This can be confusing because now most game consoles allow online access to play with other players via the Internet.

Here is a summary for the Sony Playstation 3 that the experts "What They Play" have laid out as the 10 Things Parents Need to Know About PlayStation Network. To read the full article and see screen shots of the consoles set up menus, please visit "What They Play."

1. Set the basic parental controls from the main menu of the PS3. Scroll to "Settings" and enter the "Security Options." This would include a password and assign a restriction level between 1 & 11 as 1 is the most restrictive.

Understand that each video game is given a rating E-Everyone, M-Mature, etc. So setting access for your child would most likely take the rating of 3-Everyone. Remember you can buy games that are for our younger children under Age 6.

2. Designate the age of the child by entering their birth date in the Account Settings screen.

3. This is a direct quote from "What They Play's" website: "Because other players may say inappropriate or hurtful things during games, parents may opt to utilize the "Restrict chat with other users" option in the sub-account settings, which prevents users from using text, voice, and video chat, both in-game and from the PlayStation 3 menu."

Read the entire article to learn more about Sony Playstation purchases on their online store as well as the playable demos to view before your purchase.

We hope you make age appropriate video game purchases for your children this holiday season.

18 year old male college student at Rutgers jumps from the George Washington Bridge because two roommates hide a web cam in his dorm room and recorded him having sex with another male on September 19. The roommate tweeted the fact he was live steaming the act on the Internet. And Tyler's status on his Facebook page said he was jumping from the bridge. The family of Tyler Clementi are devastated! The two roommates have been charged with invasion of privacy, which has the potential of prison time up to five years.

Is this just invasion of privacy or a case of Cyberbullying? It's interesting how technology affects our kids, their friends, family and the community. At KidsBeSafeOnline we inform parents, educators, and the community that the actions someone may take can have a devastating outcome on kids through the technologies they use. Our prayers are with his family. More on this story at CNN.

Several cases have arisen recently in which the feds have now coined the term "sextortion." Sextortion means teens have been blackmailed into either sexual acts or producing sexually explicit images of themselves after being coerced because they were either sexting and the photos spread far and wide or posted images to social media or participated in live webcam activities.

Federal prosecutors say these cases of sexual extortion are on the rise and you can read more about the individual cases printed in an article entitled: "Feds: Online 'sextortion' of teens on the rise" (AP) on August 14, 2010.

Listen to Your Time with Kim Iverson's show on Sextortion August 23, 2010 to become knowledgeable on this topic and protect your kids!