The world of the internet has progressively become more nuanced owing to the unprecedented growth in technology. This is a harbinger of the fact that now more and more people would make their way to the internet. With the advent of CO-VID, the demographics that mostly saw their numbers augmented was children.
An increasing presence means increasing safety concerns for these children, as they are still susceptible and internet literacy is not yet preached to them at any point in time.
The internet is mostly multi-layered while there is no harm in navigating through the educative and edifying websites, there are still other layers that become a matter of concern. This renders the parent’s job challenging as, besides their daily toil, they have to now make sure that their kids mostly indulge in safe internet practices.
To aid you in this painstaking task, we have made a list of 11 things that a parent should do for ensuring the safety of his\her\their kids online.
- Initiate discussions around online safety from early on
Kids often use the internet in the presence of their parents and this provides you with an opportunity to initiate a discussion. You can begin by stating that the world of the internet though looking intangible, is as real as our world. Whatever happens there has a great effect on the real world and those happenings and effects can be both bad and good.
You can also mention the importance of internet security tools that are out there such as passwords.
- Monitor their presence frequently
While this would be hard, but do try to surveil the child’s activity online as much as possible. Install the computers at points from where they are clearly visible to you in order to keep the track of their doing and watching. If they tend to use mobiles more, then keep a check on when they are accessing the internet by setting them to forget Wi-Fi passwords. You can also stipulate that there would be no usage of phones, laptops, or computers in the bedroom.
- Replace your public network with a virtual non-private network
If you dread that someone may track your family’s location in the process of your child’s navigation through the internet, then do get a Private Virtual Network or VPNs which is an encrypted connection from a device to a network in the gambit of the internet.
One of the main tasks of a VPN is to conceal your IP address, while surfing anything online. Secondly, on public networks there often is a threat of interceding your valuable data and information online, however, with VPNs encrypted format such things are not possible.
- Tell them to stay away from strangers offering gifts
Children tend to behave online the same way they would do in real life, so any awareness of the threats in those circumstances would also hold true of the virtual world. So, you have to tell them about all sorts of enticements that may move them to click into action. One of these enticements can be a stranger offering gifts, tell them to stay away from such people. Just like you wouldn’t send the child outside to collect mail from the mailman don’t let them open any anonymous mails.
- Know who your child’s online friends are
Children are essentially naïve and ingenious about whom they have attached the word friend to and may be lured away into doing something undesirable. As a parent, you should have a knowledge of who they are chatting to online so make sure to read their texts and report if you find anything worth suspecting.
- Inculcate using parental blocks into your monitoring methods
Parental blocks are an effective method to keep your children at a distance from content that is illicit and inappropriate in nature. You can buy different programs for that matter, but before spending out some fortune check whether or not your current browser has such options available. It is recommended to use a different account from that of your child’s while using it for your own purpose, so that the setting or program may not gnaw you.
- Assert a little control by setting out a time and usage limit
Reining in their overall internet usage without being stringent about it is the deal. Set a particular time limit and when they say they are using it for homework don’t count it in that. But do make sure that they are not deviating from that purpose.
- Make them aware of the reality that you can’t delete what you said on the internet
It is important to tell the kids of the conduct that they have to keep on the internet. Just because you are not physically unapproachable doesn’t mean that you would say horrible stuff to people or write something malevolent about them. Once you write a word on the internet, you mean it regardless of your true intentions. Talk with them the same way you would with an actual person or do not write things that you don’t want anyone to write about yourself. This piece of conversation would give them the idea that even on the internet they should not hurt people.
- Keep track of their digital footprint
A digital footprint is basically information that remains on the internet after they have marked their online activity by posting pictures, photos, or any other relevant information. You must have gauged the risk by now as these bits of information if interceded by a third party with malicious intent can threaten you in many ways.
Make your child also aware of this and tell them to do all the sharing with people only they trust.
- Choose strong passwords
Passwords are one of the most effective ways to prevent intruders. However, some people out of laziness or the fact that they are too irksome to remember may use the same password for everything, and if the password is simple to guess, then the trouble awaits you.
Make sure to tell your child about the importance of a strong password. A strong password consists of upper case letters (A, B, C), lower case letters (a, b, c), numbers, and symbols (*, #).
- Allow your child to communicate their issues
Laying out rules is important but make sure that the child is communicating to you on a daily basis about his activity on the internet. Winning over their trust is important as it allows the exchange of words without any impediments. In case anything goes wrong, be ready to embrace them into your bosom and tell them that you will always be there.
