Video game safety used to mean making sure your kids sat far enough away from the TV screen. Today video games offer a whole host of new concerns for parents, not the least of which is playing and talking with other people through web-enabled game play.

The internet is just as risky to children and teens who are gaming as those who are surfing or chatting. Parents can minimize these risks by getting smart about the games kids are playing and taking a few simple steps to prevent problems.

First, pay attention to ages and ratings and make sure games are not only appropriate for your child’s age and maturity level, but in line with your parental preferences as well. If you’re not sure, check it out yourself first by renting it, playing it in the store, or trying an online demo.

Second, keep tabs on which games allow chatting when playing online. For games with chat, your options include discussing chat rules of engagement with your kids, monitoring their chatting, restricting chat, or disabling the chat feature if possible.

Third, remind your child that standard internet safety rules apply when gaming. This means no sharing personal information, including: phone numbers, last names, school names, snail mail and email addresses, birth dates, or passwords.

If you and your children are smart about video game safety, you’ll be winners every time.