Being a parent is not easy. There are a lot of responsibilities that come associated with being parents- keeping children safe from digital devices and the internet is one of the major responsibilities to shoulder in this internet era.
The Internet is not going to go anywhere in the upcoming days, and in fact, it is all set to expand its roots deep in our daily lives. Therefore, you cannot sigh a breath of relief, leaving things for tomorrow.
It’s time to act today because time and tide wait for none, and if you fail to save your kids from being swayed away by the internet initially, tomorrow can be a nightmare.
So here are a few tips on how you can keep your kids safe when they take a step ahead to get acquainted with the techno-world:
1. Always practice parental controls
Children are innocent little creatures, and they might not be aware of what the internet has in store for them, and their innocent searches may sometimes open the world of dark desires and fantasies. And you probably won’t want your kids to land on some page that is not meant for them, right?
Thus, it is essential to be aware of the parental controls that you can apply over the internet and devices to prevent innocent minds from viewing content that is not intended for them.
2. Keep track of the games that they play
With online gaming trends skyrocketing with each passing day, there are more and more companies are introducing new games on online platforms. So when your kids hit the internet, they may not only use it for completing their homework or projects, they may also use it for playing online games.
There is nothing wrong to allow them to do the same but should be done in moderation, of course. But while you allow them to have some fun time over the internet, make sure that you are eyeing the types of games they play.
Ranging from gambling games to games like the blue whale that have taken lives to sexual content games, there are a plethora of versatile games over the internet, and you should make sure that your kids do not take a wrong turn and indulge in such games.
For this, the first thing you should do is to look at them and secondly introduce them to games such as hangman, matching tiles and log on websites that have games that are solely crafted for fun and educational purposes or log on to https://unscramble.org/.
3. Know your kid’s online friends
With the internet booming in the – present world, there is hardly anything that the internet cannot do., Ranging from managing your banking transactions to allowing you to take up distance studies, searching for a partner for yourself, gaming, making friends, there are numerous things for which you use the internet.
Kids are keen on making friends and thus end up creating their accounts on Facebook and Instagram that are popular for making friends. These platforms are perfectly fine to use, but again, it should be done using all your senses and at the right age.
Especially, when making friendship is concerned with your kids, you should keep a close watch on the people with whom they get around in order to ensure that your kids do not invite some unseen trouble.
There have been many cases reported over the years that include child trafficking, kidnapping, and similar unpleasant activities wherein people make friends with kids over the internet.
Hence, their social media circle should be monitored to prevent them from falling prey to any sort of cybercrime.
4. Stay at bay from leaving behind digital footprints
All those family outings and other pictures that your kids post over the internet leave a digital footprint behind. It makes one happy to share their happiness with others over social platforms, but it has an associated risk of the information being shared publicly that may be used unethically if it comes into the hands of the wrong people.
Therefore, you should restrict them from sharing information publicly. Give them a clear picture of how things can turn out to be dangerous and teach them to use privacy settings to share the pictures with only those who are known and cannot harm them in any way.
5. Keeping location as a private affair
With classes taking a digital transformation and almost every kid having access to mobile phones and social media, kids have developed a habit of letting everything known to the world.
Yes, it feels tempting to update your check-ins to let others know about your whereabouts, especially when you are dining or hanging around in some exquisite or exceptionally beautiful place. But this way, you are only leaving your trails behind.
If someone is tracking your child and is trying to get hold of them, they can easily do so by keeping a check on their social accounts.
Thus, ask your kids to switch off their location feature so that unauthorized people do not get to trace your child and do not find a way to hack their devices and gain an unnecessary sneak peek into their photos and other information.
6. Supervise their online time-clock
In this digital era, you cannot stop your kids from using mobile phones and the internet, but you can surely restrict them. Especially small kids who are not much aware of where the world is heading can easily be exposed to the adverse effects of the internet.
Always make sure that you dedicate a certain time span for your kids to use such devices. If it is an hour, then it should necessarily be an hour and not beyond that so that you can make your kids schedule screen-free after the time-out session and get them engaged in other activities that do not have screen involvement.
Conclusion
These were a few tips and tricks that you can practice to monitor your child’s online presence. Do you have more such ideas in your mind? Do let us know so that every parent reading this can make use of it and save their kids from falling in the clutches of the dark side of the internet.
