Is you little one Internet savvy? Are you worried about your kid entering accidentally into blacklisted content?
Here are few ways to ensure the online safety of your kids.
1. Try to learn and know more about the Internet and Social Networking Sites (SNS).
Parents ought to maintain themselves up-to-date on the news of SNS by learning online educational sites, and inform teens about appropriate online usage Use anti-virus software and firewalls to ensure on-line safety for your kids. Make proper use of the security options available to effectively implement online safety in browsers, social networking sites and social media. For example, enable the “Restricted Mode” in Youtube to avoid inappropriate content from popping up in searches and recommendations.
Create your own SNS account and share the online experience with your kids and be their guide.
2. Talk to your kids about the dangers and risks. Consider having open discussions with your kids regarding the unseen dangers in the world wide web, let them know what they shouldn’t browse on the Internet, and potential risks. Always keep a watchful eye on the kids while they are on-line. Make some rules on their network activity, amount of time spending on the Internet. And tell them not to use real information such as photo, name and address in personal profile. Routinely review your teens’ SNS profile, and clean up sensitive information. Check their friend lists and clean up suspected pals.
3.Parental Controls program is supplied to related parents to deal with problems relating to Social Networking Websites and community websites. Once you possess the basics of Parental Monitoring application, you’ll be better able to aid your teens to stay harmonious when they communicate online. Teens give out too much secret information such as home address, telephone number, which could give rise to critical issues – susceptibility to Internet thefts and violence of privacy. Parental Monitoring software is supplied to facilitate parents to review teens’ Internet activity and select what couldn’t be viewed by your teens. Norton Online Family, Windows Live Family Safety, PGSurfer etc., are few examples of good parental monitoring software.
4. Watch for danger signs. Warnings that indicate your teenagers can be at risk online.
- 1. Spending plenty of time online, especially at night
- 2. Reluctant to leave the room
- 3. Isolate from friends and family members
- 4. Improper links found on the computer
- 5. Receive mails from strangers
- 6. Turn the computer monitor off quickly when parent enters the room
5. Watch for signs of your children being bullied. If you see that they are, do the following:
- Online bullying is ILLEGAL according to law. If your kid gets bullied, you can totally report it.
- Once your children were bullied, take copies as evidences for future law enforcement use using parental monitoring program, and report to the relevant departments.
