Safeguarding Children – How to Keep Your Children Safe Online?
Here is All You Need to Know
Child Safeguarding and safety is the most important priority of any parent. No parent wants their child to get harmed in any way. In current times it is critically important to keep your young ones away from the dangerous content on the internet.
Since 2020 because of COVID-19, the on-screen time of children has increased. As a result of the ongoing school closures caused by the pandemic, children around the world are being provided with potential substitutes, many of which are available online, to learn outside of the classroom. Online learning applications like Google Classroom, Zoom, and teacher-created podcasts are among the alternative solutions being developed for remote education.
Moreover, now, the internet is the playground and social community for children. They meet and play with anonymous people each day. And, they are sharing their personal life on social networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. It is now easier to get famous worldwide with one single click. Or your child can get in touch with even bullies on the internet.
While parents are adapting to this new situation, during this time, it is also crucial to help children keep engaged in learning and prevent excessive use of social media and video games. In today’s article, we are going to tell you how you can keep your children safe from the harm of this online world. Just read on!
4 Must-Know Tips to Keep Your Children Protected Online
As a parent, it is your responsibility to supervise and protect the online life of your children. Below are 5 must-know tips that you can use to provide a positive online environment to your children.
- Promote Open Discussion
Your first and best defense against online threats is to build a strong relationship with your children. Cultivate the habit of open discussion among your children and monitor their online activities timely. If your kids see anything uncomfortable or annoying on the internet, they must not be feeling hesitant to discuss it with you. This will also help them to share any problem they face in life.
Train your younger children to ask permission before using any particular site. Meanwhile, you can teach them which sites are safe to use and which are not. This is the best way to educate them about online safety.
- Check for Mobile Apps That You Do Not Trust
With just a single click or tap, your children can visit a whole new world of apps. To make sure that they do not download any inappropriate app, secure the device’s app store with a password.
You can also give them private space by allowing them to have their own account and password. But keep a distant eye on them to check for apps you do not recognize or trust.
- Never Forget the Parental Controls
It is always important to teach your child about online threats. But if you cannot keep a consistent eye on them, install parental controls. You can get them from your ISP and apply for the whole household. Using parental controls, you can limit the internet access of your kids.
If you wish to browse freely on your device, you can use devices that have built-in parental controls for your children.
- Try Out the Privacy Settings
Make sure that privacy settings are applied correctly to the devices that your young ones are using. Nobody wants their children to share private data with anonymous people or bullies. Specific privacy settings will stop apps from sharing your live locations and other important data. Moreover, privacy settings will prevent the bullies from finding or see the location of your child. Many social apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, have good privacy settings.
Our children are using the internet more than ever and this will only increase. They are increasing their social networks, getting entertainment, and studying on the same platform. So, we need to secure their online life just as we do in the physical world.
We should allow them to share their online problems with us. Make sure that their device is restricted to disclose dangerous and inappropriate sites. Also, try to spend some screen time with them. For more information check out our Safeguarding course to learn more.