The internet has made so much possible. If there had been a pandemic at any other time, schools would have to have shut down. Today, thanks to the internet, children can continue their schooling even though they cannot attend schools in person. Through video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Google, Teams, and Skype, students are able to learn from teachers remotely. There are many online learning platforms that supplement school teaching and provide unique and specialized courses for students to learn from.
Beyond those, the entire broadband is available for children to learn from. Simply googling a question brings up thousands of results from thousands of websites. Children can search up anything and everything on the internet. While this unlimited access can be a great benefit, allowing children to expand their horizons and learn more, it can also be dangerous for children. Along with informative content, images, videos, and shows suitable for children, the internet also gives children access to the content not suitable for them. This can be violent and explicit content, as well as content promoting consuming alcohol and drugs, and engaging in other types of risky behavior. Often, children may not even realize that they are seeing content that is not at all suitable for them, which is why while as parents we can warn our children against viewing websites they shouldn’t, we have to take strict actions to restrict what they can do on the broadband for their own benefit.
While the broadband internet is essential to our children’s learning and development today, we must ensure that they are restricted from viewing content that is not suitable for them. Internet safety for kids/teens is crucial.
There are several ways to stay safe online for your children. Some of them are:
Parental controls are easy ways to ensure that your children do not visit websites that have inappropriate content on them. If you have a Windows computer, you can create a locked account using the Child Account feature. This feature lets you restrict access to apps in the Windows store, see what your children are doing on the computer, and limit their screen time. If you have a Mac computer, you can create a new controlled account in System Preferences. There are also internet parental controls and browser extensions that enable you to control what your child does on the internet. On Chrome, you can try getting WebFilter, and MetaCert Parental Controls. Browser tools such as Kiddle can also help prevent your child from visiting harmful websites. Kiddle is a kid-friendly browser powered by Google. Once your child makes a search, Kiddle only displays highly- ranked kid-friendly content.
There are a lot of antiviruses and applications which provide parental control features. They include mobile apps like mSpy, which allows you to monitor their incoming and outgoing calls, see their location and text messages, and monitor their social media chats. Other apps include AppLock which locks photos, messages, and social media on phones so children can’t do as they wish on their parents’ phones. Antiviruses such as Norton 360 Deluxe also help keep children safe by letting parents supervise and control the amount of time their children spend on the internet, by filtering content appropriate for them, by location tracking, and by setting Youtube restrictions.
Apart from restricting your children through tools, you must also guide them when they use the internet. It is important to try and teach them tips for safe internet browsing- what are safe websites that they can visit, what is content that they should be looking at, what websites are dangerous, and what content they shouldn’t be searching up or looking at all. Show them how to check whether a website is secure or not by checking the website’s URL and certificate. Explain to them why they should not be viewing inappropriate content, and direct them to all the enjoyable child-friendly content they can view.
Have a casual conversation with them about how they spend their time on the internet. Ask them about what games they play, what videos and shows they watch, what websites they spend their most time on, and whether they spend time on chat platforms and student boards. There are many games that young children play that have gory violence, explicit language, and other content unsuitable for children. There may also be adults playing the games who may try to talk to your child in the game. Children don’t realize how dangerous this is and can share details about themselves, their families, addresses, and more without understanding they are exposing themselves and possibly putting themselves at harm. Ask to watch your child play their online games to ensure that they are having a safe gaming experience. Make sure that the comedic videos they laugh at have appropriate jokes for their age group, and that the shows they watch are made for your child’s age group. Chat rooms and student boards can also be dangerous places as children can give away too much information or talk to adults much older than them without realizing it.
Restricting broadband internet access to your child will be beneficial not just for their broadband internet usage, but for their overall health as well. If you are wondering how to limit broadband internet access at home, it is easy. Set some time for them to spend on the broadband internet, such as an hour, and then after the allotted time is over, tell them to pursue another activity such as crafts or playing outside. This way, the limited time that your children do spend on the internet is likely to be spent wisely by them. They won’t have extra time to search up random things and find themselves on harmful websites if they’re only allowed one hour on the internet.
For more home wifi safety tips, check out our other blogs.
