In today’s world kids have access to iPads and tablets from such young ages and know how to use them. It’s easy to forget they’re really quite vulnerable searching on their own.
Internet safety is something that we, as parents, need to be familiar with. You can literally find anything when you put a few words into a search engine and ads pop onto songs and shows regularly when kids are watching, so it’s important to know what they’re being exposed to.
I’ve done some research to find some key tips in keeping our children safe. Hopefully these are helpful. Check out parenting.com for more tips!
Know their cyberspace
What are they watching? Which sites are they visiting? What do they know how to type in? One article compared checking a playground before letting your child play or knowing their friends and friends’ parents before letting them go for a sleepover is how diligent you should be with letting them choose sites to watch online. You don’t have to sit next to them the entire time they are online but check in often and try to be in the same room so you can hear what they hear.
Set house rules
Of course, these will vary based on what you allow. But some examples of rules might be the limit of how much screen time they can have a day, which days they’re allowed on the computer, a list of sites they are allowed to visit, other sites which need permission from a parent before they are visited etc. Whichever rules you choose, it’s a good idea to sit down and discuss them before implementing them. Depending on the age of your children they may react better if they have a say in the rules. Come up with a contract you all agree on and everyone can sign it. Leave it close to the computer as a reminder with allowed sites for easy reference.
Teach them about privacy
Young kids and teens feel invisible. It’s part of their development. They go through a stage where they feel untouchable. Because of this it’s really hard to drive home the fact that internet safety is key. Although it is sad to have to put fear into our children about the sickos online, we truly do need to teach them how to be safe. Here are the basics to teach them: never give out any personal information (name, phone number, email, address, school or photos), never meet with anyone online, don’t respond to emails or messages from people they don’t know or messages that are disturbing. It’s hard to have to teach them that there are people out there that would and could harm them but it’s the reality we live in.
Be their go to person
You need to drive home the point that truth is key. My parents always said and still do, “I don’t care how bad it is always tell us the truth.” It’s a pretty good motto considering we desperately need to keep the lines of communication open between you and your kids. This applies to the smallest things like sneaking treats to the really big issues like sneaking out, to online happenings.
Ensure that they come to you when something uncomfortable happens online, whether it is a picture that is sent to them or a message or email or anything. If they feel they can come to you without being punished or blamed you may be able to get the full story and stop something bad from happening.
Keep your computer in a central location, some suggestions include that computers may be all over the house with software to do homework and such, but online computers in a central location like the kitchen where there is less privacy.
Parental controls
Advice about parental controls from parenting.com: “Before buying a safety product, experts recommend that you work with what you’ve got, starting with your internet service provider (ISP). America Online, MSN, SBC Yahoo!, EarthLink, and others have reliable, free parental controls that can limit children’s access to websites and communication features (e-mail, instant messaging, chat) by age, content categories, time, and other choices.”
Search engine restrictions
You can set restrictions on certain search engines (preferences/safe search/filtering). Be aware that a savvy child could switch the settings back.
A lot of this is news to me and a world we haven’t crossed into yet, but I know it’s just around the corner. Hopefully this helps some of us now and in the future.
