A Parent's Worst Nightmare
You’re a parent of pre-teen or teenager and you’ve just confiscated their smart phone or tablet. Out of curiosity you start to investigate the apps, messages, and photos on the device to get a glimpse into the private life of your child and you do NOT like what you’ve found. Now what?
We all want to believe that our children are not accessible to internet predators or bullies, but the truth is that social media and communication apps that can connect us to millions of strangers worldwide are accessible to EVERYONE, especially our kids. These apps are marketed deliberately to children and there are a whole host of other tools your kids can use to mask their use.
As parents, we need to stay vigilant and up to date on all of these trends to make sure our kids don’t fall down these dark cyber rabbit holes. But with everything on your plate it’s harder than ever to keep up. Enter Digital Safety Group.
The internet is such a large place, making it easy for kids to have access to inappropriate content. As social media and technology grow larger and larger, it can give a parent natural anxiety about what their child is doing on the web. Increased internet access could mean cyberbullying or online predators. Parents should be aware of what their kids do or see on the internet for their protection and safety. The good news is that even if your kids are spending more time on their screens, it doesn’t always mean there is more risk for them. It is important to set boundaries and rules for your children to protect them from unsolicited content on the web. Follow these strategies to help your child be safer on the internet:
Establish Ground Rules
There should be some rules for what your child can and cannot do. Some rules to set for your child could be:
Don’t share personal information online
Don’t share photos online
Don’t accept requests or follow people you don’t know
When chatting about games, chat about the game only
These rules should be firm, especially if you have younger children who use the internet often. If you have older children, having a conversation with them will be helpful. Be sure to mention that the things your child posts online could potentially stay with them forever.
Use Parental Controls
Parental controls are a great way to enforce internet safety. They can keep younger kids from seeing disturbing content online or sharing content they shouldn’t. There are child safety tools on Apple and Windows that let you adjust the safety settings on whatever browser your child uses.
Model Good Behavior
For a child to be safe on the internet, they need to see this behavior in their guardians. Take some time to review your online behavior so that your kids will have a good role model.
Install Filtering Software
There is software online that allows you to monitor the content that your child intakes. This software will ensure your child will not see violent, pornographic, or any sketchy online presence.
Digital Safety Group can help to set up these softwares and protocols on your child’s device and even report back to you the moment any of these filters are bypassed or detect any inappropriate outreach or interaction. You can rest assured that our Smarter Privacy program is working around the clock to keep your child safe online.
The internet is a powerful, and unavoidable, tool in your child’s life. Let us help you manage it with Smarter Privacy - get started here!