Parenting Guide

How to keep our kids safe online

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Oct 25, 2013
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Many kids at this age are just checking out their favourite shows on YouTube or playing games, so it might seem a little early to worry about online dangers. But it’s better to give them the facts sooner rather than later so that they’ll be prepared once they dive more deeply into the world of email, IM, and social media.

Here are a few tips to keep your child safe online:

- Be aware and involved.

 It's important to be direct when teaching kids how to use the Internet safely and responsibly. You need to explain exactly what is and isn’t OK (read the tips below)

- Wise investigation

Ask your children what they want to do online, and then check out those websites, investigate ratings (see Common-sense Media for ratings and reviews), and explore parental-control features. Don't be intimidated by the Internet. YouTube has a safety page, for instance, that details issues such as privacy, hate content, and cyber bullying for parents.

- Talk to your kids.

Ask them questions about what they’re looking at online and who their buddies are. From time to time, sit with your children when they’re online to get a sense of what they’re doing. This also shows them that being online is not a private thing — your children should never be afraid to show you what they’re doing.

- Teach cyber-safety.

 Make sure your kids know how to avoid online dangers. Tell them that they must never share personal information like their name, school, or address with strangers online. Or, they should never send photos to or share passwords with people they don’t know. Tell them to never open an email from a stranger or click on attachments from people they don’t know (this is how people get computer viruses).

      

- Set the rules.

Keep computers with Internet access in a central room in the house. Set firm time limits for how long your child can use it and during what hours. Some parents set rules that the kids can’t play online until all the homework is done. Others allow only one hour a day online. It’s up to you to figure out what works for your family.

- Better safe than sorry.

Most search engines have controls that let parents set what kind of content can be returned in a search. Set those to a child-friendly level. On Google, for example, you can click on “search settings” to set the SafeSearch monitor to strict filtering (which blocks out explicit photos and web pages), moderate (which filters images only — this is the default setting), or no filter. Yahoo has a similar filter under "preferences."

- Report suspicious activity to your Internet service provider

Tell your children to let you know if something creepy happens to them online.

- Take another look at your own online habits. 

Our kids watch everything we do. If we don't want our kids to follow our example, we might want to think twice about our own habits. Remember to limit our own screen time, filter out strangers, and be wary of emails from unknown email addresses.

- Embrace the online world. 

The best way to keep our children safe is to guide them to safe places on the Internet. Take advantage of the many educational and fun activities — download music, play an online game at sites like National Geographic.com. Not only will your kid appreciate it, you'll know what you're dealing with.