Protect Your Kids Online, or You’ll Lose Them Forever
The internet can be a fantastic resource for children of all ages. The problem is they are continually faced with threats while online, all of which are unseen for the most part.
Protecting them while they are online can be confusing for any concerned parent if they are unsure of what steps to take. This protection doesn’t have to be difficult if the right steps are taken.
Here are tips on how to go about protecting your child while they are online.
Monitoring Online Activity
This doesn’t prevent anything, it highlights your child’s activity. Some of the larger software companies who provide these monitoring packages can check what is happening inside social media applications where many forms of threat face your children.
NetNanny which is one of the most popular can be set to send alerts should anything dubious be attempted to be accessed. It can also highlight if any online friends seem suspicious or they are a victim of cyberbullying.
The major downside is your child might feel you are watching over them a little too much, though that might only be the case in older children.
Parental Controls
This is one of the first areas where parents are able to restrict what their child can see and what they are able to access. Unwanted software installations can be prevented which might contain malware and which a child might be unaware of.
Through a safe search in search engines, or inside browsers age-related content or inappropriate sites can be blocked, or access minimized.
If any parent is unsure how to enable this in the numerous areas where it is possible dedicated software packages are available which can do this from one central point.
If a child is using a computer, a separate account can be created for only their use. Here all the controls can be set and as an aside, it can go a long way to protecting the rest of the system should any others use it.
This method also has the same downside as monitoring online activity as your child might feel restricted in what you are allowing them to do while online.
A Secure Connection
One of the best ways to help protect your child while they are online is by securing the connection of their device. This might appear to nothing more than making the connection more private, but it stops a lot more than parents might realize.
The best VPN’s (Virtual Private Network) can work from your home and protect all devices if it is installed on your home router. A good VPN service provider will also give the option of protecting mobile devices.
When your child is away from home, and they make use of public hotspots or Wi-Fi zones they are susceptible to threats from malware attacks and most importantly online predators.
Should these be in the vicinity of your child, they are more than capable of finding their location.
A VPN service would mask your child’s location, so any predator would be unaware of where your child is situated.
These VPN’s also prevent any data tracking of your child’s device so any intruder would be unable to associate your child with the information they find.
Secure Browsers
Many newer browsers are taking security more seriously than ever. Many contain safe search (mentioned earlier), and also they can delete cookies or user history once a browsing session has ended.
This helps to prevent anyone who might access a device or computer from gaining any access to the stored online activity.
Educating Your Child
For some parents, this can be somewhat challenging as their children are more tech-savvy than they are. What it does though is it highlights the threats your child faces.
When children are old enough to understand the technology, they are old enough to understand the dangers they face.
From downloading software which could contain this malware which might contain spyware that gathers information and sends it back to hackers where they use it to log into personal accounts.
There is also education in the number of hours they spend online at night. Maybe they sit in their room chatting on social media adding anyone who wishes to connect.
From here it can be a simple fact this person wishes to meet. One of the best things you can tell a child for their protection is to never agree to meet a person face to face they do not know already. It is common for predators to create false accounts to befriend children.
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