Being constantly nervous is an inseparable part of being a parent. Whether it’s about our kid’s health, what they eat at school, their new friends, or the magical world of Narnia, they enter every day through a secret door called mobile phones! There is so much happening on our kids’ smart devices that we are not aware of and can be dangerous, such as online scams, cyber bullies, etc. As responsible parents, it’s hard not to be worried about your kid’s online safety.
See if your kids are ready to have mobile phones or not.
Of course, there are parental control apps that can effectively help you set limits or monitor what’s going on on your kids’ mobile phones. However, online monitoring wouldn’t solve all the problems if they don’t know what to do after facing scams or bullies online. You can sit back and relax, for our experts on YounGo Money have gathered a practical list helping you rise to the occasion.
Table of Contents
Why Kids’ Online Safety Matter?
We can’t simply ignore the convenience brought to our lives by the miracle of the internet. All our daily tasks have a higher quality and speed thanks to the internet. However, we shouldn’t forget some serious downsides of it.
According to the Ofcom report, almost every 5-15 children gone online in 2020. These numbers show how even 5-year-old kids are exposed to online dangers. Although, there are some practical methods you can try out to lessen the threats and make sure about your child’s online safety.
Recognize the Risks
Know your enemy to defeat! If you don’t know what you’re facing as an internet threat, you can’t find the right tools and strategies for fighting against it. The first step for parents is recognizing the online risks that may be threatening their kids.
- Unsuitable Content: It includes any content inappropriate for our child’s age, including brutal or violent photos or videos, pejorative content, or porno
- Cyberbullies: People who intentionally hurt or insult others and be offensive online are cyberbullies. They may act in various ways, such as sending unpleasant messages or sharing hateful comments on social media.
- Predators: As the name suggests, they search for children online and abuse them for their nasty purposes.
8 Tips for Your Kid’s Online Safety
Now that you are aware of the likely threats, let’s examine the methods and tips helping you throughout this process.
Set Clear Boundaries
It’s vital to set your kids down and talk about healthy mobile phone use. This discussion should include their screen time, the people they’re allowed to chat with, and the web pages they can visit. You should demonstrate the results of disobeying these ground rules. Based on your parenting methods, the consequences vary from extra chores, earlier sleep time, or taking away their mobile phones and tablets.
Ask Your Kids to Use Mobile Phones Where You Can Monitor Them
Ask them to sit in the kitchen and play with their mobile phones while you are cooking or use other common areas of the house to check their messages. That way, they won’t be able to visit inappropriate websites, and once in a while, you can monitor what they’re doing online. In addition, using this method helps you take their screen time more under control and encourages more communication between parents and children.
Let Them Know You Are Interested
If you don’t make a head and tail of what your kids are talking about, it’s almost impossible to help them and be sure about your child’s online safety. For starters, ask them about their most beloved websites or applications. Increase your studies about social media and kids’ online safety. That way, you’ll be able to spot the red flags and instantly help your children if they are facing an online problem.
Parental Control Apps Securing Kid’s Online Safety
We’ve mentioned parental control apps in our previous blogs, and we believe they can be sometimes helpful and also necessary. Using parental control apps, enables you to set screen time limits or block unsuitable pages. It’s worth mentioning that almost all social media channels including, TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, let you change the setting and use their special restrictions. We will cover this subject in our future blog. In addition to social media channels, you can also block websites on browsers.
Ask Your Older Children for Help
Although it’s a huge responsibility, your older kids can be a great help to keep the younger ones safe online. They definitely know about the secrets of the internet and smart devices more than you, and probably your younger children may feel better sharing the online incidents and asking their older siblings for help rather than you.
SafeSearch
Simply go to the Google browser’s setting and activate SafeSearch to restrict improper websites.
Check if the Apps are Age-appropriate or not.
Make it clear to your kids that they’ll need your permission before installing any new apps on their mobile phones. Be sure to read parents’ comments and reviews about apps and see if they are appropriate for your child’s age. Try to find out what permissions the apps want. Do they want to access the location, camera, or contact list?
YounGo Money, Parents’ Saviour
Besides online predators, cyberbullies, etc., so much can happen when kids decide to shop online. Many online purchasing websites are not designed for kids, and many others might be scams trying to reach your kids’ bank account info. We’ve discussed this subject more here.
However, YounGo Money’s under-18s marketplace can be a safe place for your kids to buy their age-appropriate items.
Wrap Up
As soon as your children begin going online, many threats may come on their way. That’s why it’s vital for parents to care about their kid’s online safety. Noticing the tips that we’ve mentioned earlier can help you so much throughout this process.
