With the advance of the internet, the world is at humanity’s fingertips. Every digital source of information and entertainment is readily accessible to all internet users, and that includes minors as well. While it is a great way of helping your kids learn all the new information, hone their skills, and become a better version of themselves, it is also threatening to the safety of your kids for a multitude of reasons.
This short guide will help you understand how the internet can be dangerous for kids, and how you can keep your children safe in this modern, connected world.
Understanding Online Threats to Kids
There are cyber predators online that lurk in chat forums, chatrooms, and places where young kids hang out online, such as fandom websites. These predators pretend to be your kids’ friends or friendly internet friends and collect sensitive information about your kids that they can later use to either blackmail them or use their pictures, morph them with AI to create illegal content. Cases of cyberbullying have become increasingly common, where kids are bullied online by their peers from school or random bullies across the internet, which can significantly harm their mental, emotional, and sometimes even physical health.
Sometimes, criminals can send malware to your children’s devices to hack their devices and steal sensitive information. Activities done online leave a digital footprint, so sometimes the curiosity of your children can also endanger them for the rest of their lives.
Use Parental Control Tools
One surefire way of protecting your children is by using parental controls over their online activities. If you’re not tech-savvy, it would help you to learn a few tips and tricks about parental control. You can manage the screen time your children are allowed per day to avoid any addiction to social media. Another method would be implementing firewalls and blocking certain content from your kids’ devices.
You can also set up a system to receive alerts whenever your kids visit a shady website. That way, you can keep an eye on their unreasonable activities. There are also parental control apps available online that help you monitor your kids’ activities across their TVs, computers, and phones for better management of the content they see. You can also look into options that are made with children in mind, such as a kid’s smart watch or phone.
Install Reliable Antivirus Software
Regardless of how well your kids behave on the internet and how good parental controls you have on their activities, you also need to fortify their devices against other attacks, like malware and viruses. Installing antivirus software on all household devices will help you detect any malware right away, block it, neutralize the threat, and help identify the source of such malware as well. Children are a lot more likely to install phishing software and malware on their computers, so you should ideally install a good-quality, paid antivirus software on their system.
Talk to Your Kids About Online Safety
As your kids grow, you can learn to communicate the threats on the internet to them a lot better. Lead by example and limit your own social media usage as well as practice mindful usage of the internet, and teach them the same. Educate them about online privacy and show consistent actions on your behalf as well, so they know how to follow in your footsteps. You can find more tips and tricks online to figure out how to educate your kids about online security and privacy.
Other Smart Safety Measures
Other safety measures that you can take include regularly updating your devices and making sure all the programs being used are updated. The same goes for the apps on your kids’ mobile phones. The phone apps are constantly updated because these apps provide security against potential malware.
By regularly updating them, you’re keeping the security threat contained. Avoid letting them connect their devices to public Wi-Fi as well. Public Wi-Fi is easily accessible without firewalls to many cybercriminals, and they can access sensitive personal and financial information from the devices quite easily.
Conclusion
Protecting your kids from threats on the internet is very important. There are plenty of horror stories out there about kids falling victim to all sorts of dangers online, most of them preventable through a watchful eye and steps taken to avoid any unwanted consequences. With a bit of responsible action, you can safeguard your kids against these threats effectively.
Photo Credit:
Photo 1, Credit to Freepik || Photo 2, Credit to Freepik (CC0 1.0)
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