Internet is an open world full of good and bad people, and the worst thing about it is that you can never know the difference. Kids sometimes end up becoming friends with bullies and hackers who are double or even triple their age. These people then exploit kids and their parents to get monetary and other benefits. Unfortunately, there is no specific way to fully avoid these incidents online. However, the risk of youngsters getting exposed to the bad side of the internet and getting caught up in deep trouble due to their recklessness can be mitigated to a large extent with the help of digital parenting aids like Android, iPhone, iPad parental controls. Once you’ve developed faith and invested in reliable parental control software, here’s what you need to do to keep your young ones safe in the digital world.
1. Monitor Social Media Activity
Kids spend most of their time on social media, so it is highly suggested that you monitor their social media activities to make sure they are not posting anything inappropriate or getting involved in a heated discussion with anyone on a sensitive issue. You can minimize the online risks by keeping an eye on the Timeline, chat logs, images and videos shared, etc. of youngsters. If you notice anything unusual, take immediate action to avoid any serious issue.
2. Log Web Browsing History
Internet is a great source of information for all sorts of things, be it good or bad, and unfortunately, kids are well aware of this. Furthermore, cyber space is unsupervised, unfiltered, and filled with content that you definitely wouldn’t want your kids to be exposed to. You must realize that kids do not know what is right for them and what is not; they simply follow what their heart says, even if it is unethical, illegal, or dangerous. What you can do is monitor their web browsing history to make sure they are doing nothing that you should be worried about.
3. Restrict their Online Freedom
Kid’s are immature. What they see and watch on Internet has a deep impact on their minds, which is why you must filter internet in order to make sure teens get access to only appropriate websites. Many Android, iPhone and iPad parental controls come equipped with the feature to let you create white list/black list. The white list contains all the safe websites your teen can get access to and black list contain inappropriate website which should not be opened on your kid’s device.
4. Block Inappropriate Websites
You cannot monitor kids 24/7, so it is best to install a monitoring app that can block inappropriate websites. Well, there are several options to choose from. You may go for keyword blocking or category-based blocking. The keyword blocking allows you to block every website containing a certain keyword like porn, drugs, alcohol, suicide etc. If it seems difficult to enter each keyword, then you may also go for category-based blocking. It allows you to block all the websites that come under certain category like social media, porn, violence, etc. These steps are taken to make sure kids do not come across anything disturbing which affects their mind or tempts them to put their well-being in danger.
5. Limit Internet Use
Another measure you must take for kids’ online safety is limiting their internet use, as an excessive use of internet is neither safe nor healthy. You may fix a set time for daily internet use, preferable the time slot when you’re around to keep an eye on them. Encourage them to live a life outside of internet and make real friends instead of talking to strangers for hours online.