Using internet has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. And excessive or wrong use of that has its own risks, especially for kids. Hence to keep your children safe online, we have listed below some basic tips to ensure their safety as well as privacy.
Have a dialogue with your kids
Online safety and privacy risks have been consistently on the rise. Hence all you can do as a parent is have a word with your children regarding those issues and teach them why it is important to ensure their own safety and privacy when using the internet. It might sound silly but you can start having discussion about online safety and privacy risks with your children at an early age. They may not understand its seriousness at first but you can always try your awesome storytelling skills and help them understand consequences in a meaningful way without sounding discouraging.
Spend more time with your children
These days, children spend a lot of time playing games on mobile or chatting with their friends online. In that case, you need to start spending more time with your kids. It will not only help them stay away from gadgets, but you can also stop worrying about your digital life and spend some quality time with your children. Be a friend of your kids and share fun time together so they don’t feel lonely and make friends or chat with strangers on the dark side of the internet.
Use parental controls
By making use of parental controls, you can protect your kids online. They also come in handy limiting their browsing time or keeping a track of their digital life activity. Windows 10 has a lot of options for both families and parents to make sure their children are safe online. For turning them on, search for ‘family options’ using Windows search bar> Options > Sign up for your child and turn on parental controls. Even antivirus software like Kaspersky have parental control options to prevent their children from accessing certain websites.
Switch to Kids mode
A lot of smartphones these days come with a secure, kids mode. So, you can always switch to that before handing your phone over to your children. Kids mode is limited to all basic features and games available to play. Once enabled, they cannot access anything except what is available for them, i.e. your social media apps and websites are beyond their access. So, if you want to prevent kids from accessing Facebook while using your phone, you can switch to simple (Kids) mode.
Don’t let your kids sign up for a Facebook account before the age of 13
You read that right. You should not allow your children sign up for a Facebook account before the age of 13. Post the recent Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal, ensuring safety and privacy of your children and yourself is of paramount importance. Keep an eye on what data of your children is being shared with third-party apps and games. Also, avoid accessing your own social media accounts in front of the kids. Children have this tendency of trying to copy whatever their parents do. So staying away from your own Facebook in front of your children may keep them away from the temptation of wanting their own Facebook account too early.