Any responsible parent wants to keep their child as safe as possible while teaching them personal responsibility and independence. In the age of the internet, this can be quite tricky as social media and other sites mean that you might never be sure what your child is doing online and who they are talking to. Thankfully there are several things that parents can do to improve their child’s safety online, protect their privacy and get peace of mind. Here are some tips that all parents should be aware of. 

Educating Your Child:

The first step to promoting safer internet usage in children is to offer education. Kids are not aware of the risks of getting online and might engage in certain behaviors completely innocently. Don’t just speak to your child about the dangers of communicating with strangers online, but speak to them about a wide range of cybersecurity concerns such as always keeping apps and security software up to date and how to recognize phishing messages. Helping your child learn about these things, why it’s important to know about them and how to respond to anything suspicious online will not only help to keep them safe now but also set them up with good habits for life. Lumify Learn also suggests teaching them how to keep their passwords secure using a password manager.

Parental Controls:

If you have a young child who is using the internet then it’s safe to say that you probably want to avoid the risk of them stumbling across something that they shouldn’t be seeing online. In this case, it’s a wise idea to set up parental controls on your child’s devices. These apps allow you to control what your child sees online by blocking certain websites or certain categories like pornography or social media, giving you peace of mind that your child is at less risk whenever they access the internet. You can also browse your child’s internet history and some parental control apps offer GPS, which can be a good idea for staying in touch with your child and figuring out where they are quickly when needed. 

Nuwber:

If you suspect that your child is speaking to a stranger online, the first thing to do is ask them about it. If your child has told you that they are being contacted by somebody that they do not know online, there are several tools that you can use to find out who it is in order to take appropriate action depending on the type of contact that has been had. Most of the time, your child is probably talking to other kids, but if you’ve been made aware of inappropriate contact with your child online, you can use Nuwber to search for a phone number or email address to get a name and find out who it is. 

Encourage Communication:

Finally, it’s important to make sure that your child knows that they are safe to come and tell you about anything that happens online. Make sure that your child knows that they will not be in trouble if somebody has tried to contact them, and educate them on what’s appropriate and what isn’t when it comes to conversation. You will want to find out as soon as possible so that you can take the appropriate steps to deal with bad influences and individuals who are up to no good online. 

Today, kids are using the internet from a younger age than ever before, so making sure that they are safe online is paramount.