Nowadays, many parents are very permissive to their children regarding internet usage. As most kids today were born in the digital age where everything is connected to the internet and there are so many gadgets around the house, it’s only natural that these children will try to play with them. It is the responsibility of the parents to control their kids in their internet usage so that they are not putting themselves in the attention of bad people online. Remember that the online privacy of your kids needs to be protected by you as a parent.
You need to be proactive in teaching your children the way to use the internet safely for them. You have to know that most social media websites only allow people of 13 years of age and older to have a social media account. So, don’t just allow your children to create one for themselves. There are lots of steps that you can take to keep the online privacy of your kids safe and protected. Here are some tips to protect the online privacy of your kids:
1. Apply A Parental Control Lock In All Your Devices
This is something that many parents neglect to do. They let their children play with their gadgets without any kind of control about what they are doing with their gadgets. Or, some parents are giving their kids the gadgets that they want without actually monitoring their usage. This is a bad practice, and certainly it will bring a risk of danger for the children’s online privacy. What parents need to do is to apply a parental control for all their devices. If you have kids that keep on using your gadgets, the parental lock system is the way to monitor their gadget use, setting up how many hours per day that you will allow them to use your gadgets, knowing what they are doing with it, blocking inappropriate websites, and so on.
2. Always Monitor Their Social Media Usage
While most social media platforms are not the platforms to be used by the children, there are parents who create social media accounts for their children, despite the minimum allowed age to be 13 years old. As a result, many kids are now using various social media platforms without any supervision from parents, leading to many problems in their digital life. For instance, the kids might have conversations with suspicious people, and they give various private information to them without second thoughts. This is why there are some social media monitoring programs available to help parents monitor their kids’ social media usage and online activity. You should have this tool installed on your device.
3. Teach Your Kids About The Importance Of Online Privacy
If you have children with the age of 10 years or older, they will be naturally curious about everything that they see around them. This includes the internet. Naturally, your children will want to use the internet all the time since there are too many interesting things that they can find there. However, be sure to limit the use of internet for your children every day and teach them about the importance of online privacy. You shouldn’t let them talk with anyone suspicious online or access anything that is inappropriate for them. Teach your children the importance of online privacy from the start in order to prevent any type of possible threats later.
4. Don’t Let Your Kids Speak With Unknown People Online
Parents that let their children use social media platforms and let them post on their social media platforms, upload YouTube videos, share pictures on Instagram, and so on are in for the big trouble if they are not careful. If you think that social media platforms are a kind of playground for your children, you are wrong. There are lots of bad people online that target kids specifically, and they can monitor and track your kids’ online activity via their online posts. So, if you are going to allow your kids to use the internet, you should think again. More importantly, don’t let your kids speak with anyone suspicious online. Only let them speak with people that they know, such as their parents and family members.
5. Use The Internet Only For Educational Purposes
The internet can be a bad or a good place for your children depending on how you allow them to use it. There are lots of content that are inappropriate for kids, so if you plan on letting your kids use the net, be sure to apply a parental control lock for your device to block inappropriate content. On the other hand, you can use the internet as a way to teach your children about many things. In fact, if you are strictly using the internet only for the educational purposes, you will get many benefits from it. First of all, your kids will stay safe online. Second, your kids can improve their grades and do better at school.
Those are the tips to protect the online privacy of your kids. Don’t let your kids explore the internet by themselves. Always allow your kids to use the internet only under your supervision and apply strict rules in their online communication and internet activity. This is the way you can protect the safety and privacy of your kids online while not depriving them of the latest technology that they are surrounded with.