Nearly 21% of children aged 10 to 18 face cyberbullying, discrimination based on economic status, ethnicity, etc. A demeaning comment about their parents being poor or their appearance or living space in group chats highly affects young adults’ self-esteem. A strict parental warning is a must in such cases. Check whether your kid faces any issues or insults, and help them deal with them courageously. Create awareness and help them to rely on advanced tools to protect themselves. Here are 5 ways to protect your child online.
Restrict Kids Giving Information on Dating Sites
Nearly all the kids aged 16 to 18 use dating apps and websites to find anonymous suitors. Over 47% of stalking incidents report they got personal information about the victim from the dating websites.
- Set strict rules for your teens regarding using dating websites.
- Enlighten them about the numerous crimes occurring by sharing unwanted data on such websites.
- Tell them to inform you if the person they are chatting with makes a degrading comment about them, sends them an inappropriate picture, or uses foul language.
- Encourage the kids to confront such people immediately and warn them to stop using such language and actions.
- Make your children block the number and cut all contacts and friendships with the person if they continue to assault.
- Teach them how to use the Nuwber tool to check the accurate details of the person they befriend.
- Never allow them to go out with strangers befriended online unless you confirm the identity and whereabouts of the new person.
- Install apps for emergency calling and check on them regularly to ensure everything is going smoothly. Stay updated about their whereabouts at all times.
- Warn the children not to disclose sensitive or confidential information about the family, or business online and offline.
Privacy Settings and Password
Check your teen’s social media settings and change them to private. Indeed, they will not get many likes and become famous. Only their friends and family can access the posts and photos they share. But the children will also be free from the prying eyes of the cybercriminals targeting their innocence.
Check their friend’s list on social media and enquire about new contacts regularly. Just connecting with their account will allow parents to view all their friend’s lists and contacts. Warn them to cut friendship with anyone you think is dangerous. Always know their passwords and ensure they do not have different accounts without your knowledge.
Encourage Kids to Explore Internet Productively
Many teenage kids will oppose keeping their status private because they try everything to become famous and cool kids. They count on the views and likes they get on social media to maintain their social quality among their peers.
If your kids oppose vehemently keeping their social media settings private and monitored by parents, teach them regarding other ways to become famous. Encourage them to play guitar and post videos online, share their comic reading habit with like-minded friends in forums, etc.
Guide them regarding using social media to create a brand for themselves without exposing confidential information. Kindle them to develop talent in art, sports, education, etc., to gain their coveted fame.
Create Awareness Among the Kids
- Keep the kids well informed regarding cybercrime, cyberbullying, sexting, phishing attack, etc. Encourage the kids to help others children in similar positions targeted by online issues.
- Get them a handbook that describes whom to contact if they want to report against a particular person who troubles them online.
- Encourage them to create a poster, project, or presentation on the danger of data breaches and the importance of keeping one’s data online safe. Talk with their teacher and enable them to share it in the classroom among your society kids.
- Ensure the kids trust you to approach you with any online issue that gets out of their hands.
- Use tools, software, and plugins to erase browsing history, avoid cookie tracking and safeguard viruses, malware, and hackers.
The Best Parental Control Tools
Bark App: Monitors over 24 social media accounts and warns you if your kid creates a new account or login from another computer
Kaspersky Safe Kids: Prevents online monetary transactions and has filters to prevent adult content
Net Nanny: Screen lock facility, kid-safe filters, and parental warning
Qustodio: Best for monitoring what the teenage children browse online
Our Pact: This app has an advanced location tracker. Install it on your phone to track where your kid is at any time
WebWatcher: Monitors the texts and sends a report to parents. Even deleted messages get screened by this app. It will also alert the parents if there is some risky activity involving sexting, violence, or improper language usage
LocateGy and ScreenTime apps enable parents to control how long an app gets used. For example, a video game or YouTube video will play only for a set time
AdGuard and NextDNS allow the parents to block certain websites and apps like Tinder. Advanced filters based on age will enable the filtering of porn and violent content. They also prevent the children from accidentally entering unwanted and suspicious websites. AdGuard has a feature to avoid unsafe online shopping to protect the credit card details from being stolen.
Keeping the children safe from online threats and unwanted content exposure is every parent’s concern. There are many powerful tools to aid the parents in this job. Explore the features of the various tools and install them as you see fit to keep your child safe online. Make your child believe you are doing this only for their good. Educate them regarding cyberbullying and various other cybercrimes. Encourage them to help others suffering from such targeted attacks. Help them be strong and face the world with good backup and security backed by technology and your steadfast love for them.
