We all know how important it is for kids to learn about internet safety, especially given the saturation of social media in their lives. With so much advice out there, we’ve compiled a list of ten things you should teach your kids about online safety and how they can have a successful online presence and avoid potential risks.
Teach Your Kid About Internet Risks
Discussing your child’s internet habits, preferred programs, and how their classmates interact in cyberspace is an excellent approach to provoke them to think about how to stay secure online. The sooner you address what your kid watches, reads, and talks about online, the better. This may help you navigate the tricky issue of parental control while ensuring your kids’ cybersecurity and autonomy.
Monitor Your Children’s Online Activity
Always keep an eye on your children’s cyberspace use, particularly the younger ones. Avoiding late-night texting or gaming is crucial for your child’s academic success and sleep. Place the device in an open area of the house to easily watch what your child is doing on-screen. Most importantly, rules like no use of devices after bedtime work effectively.
Train Your Kids to Take Initiative
Apps are ubiquitous these days, yet many are unsuitable or dangerous for your child to use. They should never download an app without first checking it out. Additionally, SafeSearch filters should be used to help your children conduct safe internet searches to avoid bullies. Even if it’s not a silver bullet, parental controls can significantly prevent most sexual and violent content that kids might encounter online.
Building Healthy and Safe Friendship Networks Online
Some people you find online don’t exist in real life, but many kids don’t know that. Kids need to learn about cyber criminals from a young age. In such cases, they will always know who they are interacting with on digital media sites like Facebook. It’s important to teach your kids to use Nuwber for verifying the real identity of strangers who send them friend requests before accepting them. Remind them not to provide personal information online or meet strangers from online in real life without first contacting you. If you can, verify that their friends list only includes genuine people.
Educate Your Kids On the Value of Maintaining Personal Confidentiality
Your children ought to know the dangers of revealing personal information, such as contact details, locations, and banking information, over the Internet. Criminals might exploit this information to harm you or your children. Educating your children about the dangers of posting private information is crucial as a parent.
Password Security is Critical
Your kids will less likely know or care about the ramifications of what they publish and share online. It’s your duty to educate them about being careful and mindful about what they do. The significance of protecting one’s identity should be instilled in every child. Not even the closest friends should be allowed to share your child’s passwords, even if they are intimately familiar with their credentials. Teach your kids how to create unique strong passwords and explain why it is so important.
Teach Your Kids How to Use Social Media Safely
Each picture and piece of personal data published online adds to a person’s digital footprint. Children raised with smartphones and social media are more prone to behave spontaneously and share whatever comes to mind.
It is still possible for your children’s data to fall into the wrong hands if they share everything only with their friends. Additionally, people should assume that everything they publish online will be there forever. So for your own security, be proactive about what your kids post. Keep your child’s digital footprint private and minimal by teaching them to only share with individuals they know and trust.
Your Children Should Learn How to Keep Their Location Secret
Make sure that your kid is not announcing their location using geo-tagging or easily identifiable images in social media posts. It is essential to let your kids know how and when to disclose their location, even if it is necessary for security or mapping reasons. Urge them to avoid using the location features on their phone unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Teach Them That Life Does Not End with Screens and Gadgets
Australian Institute of Family Studies recommends two hours of screen use each day for children aged five to seventeen. So, always monitor your child’s internet usage, especially if they are underage, to prevent them from developing bad habits. Create a schedule to control how your children use their devices and make sure they follow it. Establish “gadget-free” days to allow your kids to participate in physical exercise or entertainment without distraction from technology.
Educate Your Children About Privacy Updates
Children may have a greater understanding of technology and social media than adults, which leads us to leave dealing with it to themselves. However, kids are not always interested in the technical part of using technology, just the social part. For instance, your kid will be less likely to pay attention to the user agreements or privacy settings before hitting the accept button.
It is vital to ensure your kids understand the risk of accepting some of these agreements without reading. You may even go one step further and enroll them in classes that teach online safety, or check out one of the leading ID theft protection companies for an extra layer of protection.
Don’t Forget the Positives and Set an Example
Avoid portraying the Internet as a dangerous place that should be avoided at all costs. Discuss with your kids how they can utilize online platforms to learn and engage in other interests. Set a positive example for your children by handling your gadgets how you’d want them to handle theirs. Children are very good at copying habits from adults, so make sure to walk your talk.
Keep Your Kids Safe
Kids often learn from their parents. Therefore, keeping your children safe online starts with how you handle it yourself. Ensure that you teach your kids everything regarding the Internet, both positive and negative. Also, keep in mind that whatever you feed them should help them utilize the Internet appropriately. As your kids mature, educate them correctly based on their age and exposure.
