The Internet is an interesting yet troublesome place. There are literally countless benefits of the Internet. But as a parent, you are always afraid of what your kids might find online. Not just the content available online but people are dangerous as well to a young mind. It is a difficult thing to keep your child safe from online predators, scammers, or unsuitable content.
As a parent, you must have thought a million times about the type of things your children are doing online. Now you can’t stop your kids from going online, but what you can do is to take some measures for cyber safety for kids.
How to Keep Your Child Safe on the Internet
The best way to keep your children safe is by teaching them the difference between right and wrong. Once your kids understand the value of right and wrong usage of the Internet. You won’t need a reason to worry. You might have thought multiple times about how to teach your child about online predators? Well, when they are at the right age, you can teach them about cyber safety for kids, but if your kids are too small to understand that, then you can use these tips for additional safety measures.
Take Advantage of Parental Controls
You can use parental control to limit the activities of your kids online. What they see, what they can access and what they can purchase, basically everything is under your control. With parental controls, you can block a lot of things, but parental controls also have limitations. You can’t stop predators from texting your kids over social media. Still, they restrict a lot of things.
Parental controls are everywhere and they are the perfect solution for your question of how to keep your child safe on social media? All the Smartphones, Tablets, Desktop and Operating systems have parental controls built-in for your kids’ safety use as much as you can. Here’s how you can activate parental controls in Windows and Mac Os.
- Windows 10
To activate parental controls in Windows 10, open the settings app, go to Settings> Accounts> Family & other users> add a family member and add your kid’s account. Once the child account has been created you can put limits on the screen time, restrict application access, Windows also allows you to, block inappropriate games, videos and websites.
- Mac OS
For parental control in Mac OS, open system preference and go to parental controls> create a new user account with parental controls and create an account for your child.
Guidelines on How to Stay Safe Online
The best way to keep your children safe online is to have a talk with them about the dangers of online activities. Make sure your children have a set of rules and regulations they have to follow while they are online. Tell them about the value of passwords and how risky it could be sharing it with everyone. Also, tell them not to click on every pop up offering a new accessory for their favorite game.
As a parent, you should teach your kids about how they should deal with a stranger, texting them on their social media accounts. Also, tell them the difference between a bad website and a real one.
Understand How The Technology Works
Just because you are a parent, it doesn’t mean you can’t learn how Instagram works. To truly understand what your kids are doing, you need to learn the functioning of these apps. Making an effort can help you increase social media safety for kids. You don’t have to blame social media for everything, learn how social media works, and what your kids are doing on it. Almost all social media platforms have their privacy policy, that allows users to choose whether they wish to share their personal information with strangers on social media. Telling your kids the importance of privacy can increase social media safety for kids significantly.
You should go on a social media account and be friends with your kids (it’ll ruin social media for them forever). if you are their friend, then you can see what they are posting and sharing. Possibly the greatest way to peek into the minds of your kids.
Anti- Virus for Total Protection
Most of the kids click on the ads that pop up out of nowhere and ask you to install a “Super Cool” software. Well, an Anti-virus software would help you go a long way. Installing an Anti-virus software is pretty helpful as it won’t let your kids visit any third-party websites, install any harmful program and it will also provide an extra layer of security to your device’s firewall.
There are plenty of options out there for an Anti- Virus software, you can either get a free or a paid software. Both the software will provide you with almost the same level of security. The only downfall of free security is that it will have lesser features. If you’re willing to pay for an Anti- Virus software, then you should choose with McAfee AntiVirus Plus and Norton 360 Deluxe. Both Softwares give you plenty of additional security features for online security.
Ask Local Internet Service Provider for Online Restrictions
If you don’t wish to invest in an anti-malware software, then you can ask your local internet solution provider for additional parental controls. They aren’t well equipped with many security features, but they still do a decent job. Most of the major internet service providers like Comcast Xfinity, AT&T & Spectrum offer you additional security features with your internet package. Internet parental controls will only offer you services. Internet timing, Block specific websites and web services, also you can get a log of monthly activity with your monthly bill.
This is a great way if you are searching for how to keep your child safe on the internet, this can act as the first step in cyber safety for kids.