How to keep your children safe while on the internet?

Posted by Olio Penman on January 5th, 2023

How to keep your children safe while on the internet?

Parents are always worried about children's safety when there is internet accessibility at home because inappropriate content online causes children to be disruptive. Protecting children from bullies is a challenging task for parents.   

The Internet is here, and more than fifty percent of Indian teens spend nearly three hours per day surfing the internet, so you must keep an eye on and safeguard your children from internet access.      

Talk with your child regarding their online activity 

Once your child starts accessing the internet, you need to ask what they are working on and who they are communicating with and should keep doing it as they grow and find sites they visit and apps they download. 

Ask them to write down the list of sites they are searching for reading sites. Try to avoid giving smartphones because you don’t know what sites they visit. They will delete the history and go out and use them. Teach them how dangerous visiting pornography sites is. 

Keep the computers to be visible to you 

No matter how much time your child spends on the computer, try to keep the computer that is visible to you because it is easy to keep an eye on what your child is reading and the sites your child is visiting. You should not give wifi passwords to your child, and you should access it because they can easily cheat you and use the computer when you are out of the home. 

Keep on checking the search history on the computer because you should know whether they are visiting healthy or not. Observing your child’s computer usage tells you whether he is studying or misusing the computer.

Use your parental controls

Parents must use the option of search control or restriction provided by web browsers. There are options like SafeSearch Filters features on Google to block explicit sexual material. At the same time, YouTube also offers the same restriction options as most violent and sexually explicit videos.     

Know who your children’s online friends are

When your children use the internet, they chat with their friends. Try to find who they are chatting with and check whether they follow the same as your children. If not, inform their parents so they can use controlling options for safe internet access for children.  

Avoid social media networking sites  

Your child might not know the damage that social media creates when they share personal information - content or images on public platforms. So tell them to be cautious about social media. If they avoid them, it would be healthy. If not, ask them to be thoughtful about what they share on sites.

Teach your children to keep their location private

Most applications and devices have geo-tagging features that make your details public and lead someone directly to you. The best aspect is that you better ask children to turn them off for obvious reasons. 

Check online time your child spends

While your children have access to the internet, you should track the online time that your child spends. It should not be more than two hours per day. When you control your child, they do not develop bad habits. It is better if you switch off the wi-fi at home after two hours.

Today, international schools have internet access for reading and doing research. But, they have restrictions on safe searches at school premises. International schools in Mumbai, introduced tech-based teaching in classrooms. However, only limited access for children.