There is no secret that the online world is full of vulnerabilities, particularly for teenagers and tweens. The young children are prone to several online dangers such as cyberbullying, online child predation, scamming, self-harm activities, sexting, pornography, and innumerable online crimes. The only way to protect kids from online dangers is to supervise and guide their digital behavior. There are different tactics that enable parents to ensure the security and privacy of their children. In this article, we have discussed a few most effective ways to ensure kids’ online safety and privacy.
Make Use of Parental Controls
Parental controls enable parents to monitor and manage the online behavior of their children. For example, Google offers parental controls to restrict kids’ access to age-inappropriate content available on the internet. There is a wide variety of parental control app enabling parents to watch out their kid’s online activities. If we particularly talk about cell phone parental control app, the example of OgyMogy would be the best.
OgyMogy is a cell phone monitoring and parental control app that is particularly developed for child monitoring. It enables parents to remotely monitor and control smartphone devices of children to improve their online experiences. The app automatically creates online backup of data stored on the phone and uploads to the online portal of OgyMogy from where parents can review it. Also, the parental control app enables parents to supervise kids’ activities performed on social media apps, instant messengers, email, and online accounts.
Make Frequent Discussions about Online Dangers
Make sure your kids are well aware of online dangers. Have frequent discussions with them about most common online dangers such as online bullying and child predation. Ask open-ended questions like what they know about online predators and what their tactics to trap kids are. The more you would inform your kids about vulnerabilities and online endangerments, the more cautions they would be when they will be online.
Also, inform your kids that what type of behavior is acceptable online and what not. Let them know what information is safe to be shared and what not? What type of photos and videos can be shared on the internet and what not? Your kids must have answers for all these important questions. Encourage them that they share every unusual online experience with you to seek guidance.
Make Rules to Ensure Online Safety
Rules can be the least favorite thing for children and even adults. However, these rules play an important role in developing responsible behavior. Every home has some sort of rules such as rules regarding eating, sleeping, and staying out of home. Similarly, you must have rules regarding the online world. For example, you can make it a rule that your kids would not use age-inappropriate gaming, dating, and social media apps. You may disallow your kids to talk to strangers online and share personal information with anyone on social media.
Manage Kids’ Access to the Internet
In this digital age, it is hard to find any home or school without the facility of the internet. Our kids experience the digital world at a very early age. The internet lets them search any information they want without any filter. Parents are responsible to manage the internet usage of their children to ensure their online safety. You may use website blocking tools to restrict kids’ access to age-inappropriate, objectionable and malicious websites. Try to make the internet secure for your kids with the help of website filtering. Make sure you manage the internet access on all mobile phones, computers, tablets, and other internet-connected devices at home.
Demonstrate Responsible Online Behavior
Parents must demonstrate responsible online behavior to help kids learn responsible and secure online behavior. If your kids would find you posting every personal photo and video on socializing platforms, they would do the same. Kids learn more from actions and less from words. They are more likely to act the way they see others acting. So, make sure they have a responsible and secure online environment to learn and get inspired.
Hope this article would be helpful in learning the best practices to ensure kids’ online safety. Keep visiting us for more guidance regarding the secure use of the online platforms.
