Jerry, start by teaching the kid about 'street smarts' on the Internet. You can't be at his elbow every moment so he will undoubtedly do a little exploring on his own, or possibly encounter predators within trusted sites. He will have to respond appropriately based on his own judgement when he encounters anything unsuitable. If he's not old enough to exercise reasonable judgement wait another year before providing access.
We started by letting our daughters share our email account so we could review their mail. Soon younger daughter received a virtual greeting card from a good friend, a reference to a website showing a personal message from the friend printed on a harmless, cute photo of puppies or something. But something didn't look right to me. After digging around I found the webmaster also had a site marketed to adults where he sold lists of preteen girls' email addresses. "100% recently verified."
I had already lectured the kids that they might unexpectedly see crude images if they roamed the internet, now it was time to talk about predators looking for them.
Years later both kids have grown up with a realistic view of the hazards, as well as the tremendous opportunities, associated with internet access. I'm not aware of any more incidents.
I just searched for the