Every parent wants to make sure that their child is safe and happy, but when it comes to the internet, it’s not always easy to protect your children from everything. Teaching your kids some basic online safety rules and encouraging them to communicate with you about their online activity on a regular basis will help them develop good habits and become in charge of their own online security. The internet is not always the safest place for kids but the good news is that there are plenty of tools and strategies that parents can use to ensure that internet use is safe and enjoyable for their children.

Parental Controls:

Setting up parental controls on your child’s devices will give any parent more peace of mind. You can use the parental controls to block off certain websites that you do not want your child to see. You can also use the parental controls to make sure that your child isn’t accidentally ordering themselves hundreds of dollars worth of new toys and games using your bank cards. There are plenty of great parental control software out there that you can install on your child’s devices to monitor and customize the online experience that they have.

Check Who They’re Speaking With:

Kids will often talk to each other online using social media or online games and most of the time it’s completely innocent and harmless. However, there might be times when you suspect that your child is being contacted by somebody who is up to no good. It’s important to talk with your child about the dangers of speaking to strangers online and what they should never be comfortable talking about or sharing with somebody that they don’t know. You can use Nuwber to find out more about who your child is talking to online using a name, email address, or telephone number.

Teach About Sharing:

Kids don’t often realize the gravity of what they are doing when they share certain things online. Before you allow your child to use social media sites, it’s a good idea to make sure that they understand why it’s important to keep their profile private and be careful about what they are posting or sharing. Explain to them that even if a post is deleted, later on, people might have screenshots and nothing is ever fully deleted from the internet.

Online Security:

It’s a good idea for kids to learn about online security from a young age. Speak to them about the various ways that hackers can gain access to their devices and information and why it’s important that they use good antivirus software and keep it up to date. It is also important to teach your kids about the importance of using strong, unique, and unguessable passwords. It’s worth setting up a password manager for your whole family as kids might be more likely than adults to use the same simple password for everything they log into.

Trusting Links:

Speak to your kids about what a phishing attack is and make sure that they know that not every link they come across will be trustworthy. If your child has now gotten their own email address, it’s worth teaching them about how hackers will try to trick them into providing information like passwords by sending an email that appears to be trustworthy.