awesomescopeThe internet is a wonderful tool, absolutely necessary in today’s tech-driven world it can educate, entertain and help people stay in touch. It’s the basis of many people’s working lives and a necessity in every family home – but it’s also a hotbed of danger for children.
There are many websites freely available to children which contain disturbing images, video and information. There are predators looking to connect with naive children who are not being monitored properly whilst online.
Chat functions on a variety of websites are easy to access and no proof of age is required so children who are very young could potentially chat one-to-one with just about anyone in the world.
Use parental controls
You can easily download or use integrated parental control apps on your phones, tablets and PCs or laptops. In fact, it’s vital that you do. But even with this, you also need to teach your child the basic rules of the internet.
- Never share your real name
- Never share your location
- Never share photographs
These three things are highly important even for children who only use social media designed for kids.
How to separate real from fake news
This is very important but not always discussed. Social media is full of false information. People create content designed to shock or illicit a strong emotion but it’s not always based in fact. Show your teens the Snopes website if they’re not already aware of it and let them know how to research the information they’re finding online.
Teach them about phishing – where scammers contact people via email using fake addresses which mimic trusted ones. Tell them never to click on a link if they’re not 100% confident that it is safe to do so. At the end of the day, you can’t watch your teens all of the time but you can watch smaller children. That’s why they should only be allowed access to devices which are in shared spaces where you are present.
Do not allow them to use devices at night when you are asleep. Have them hand over their phone or other device an hour before lights off. This allows them to rest from the lights of the monitor or screen and to let their brains switch off.
Schools play a big part in teaching children the proper and safe use of the internet. This preparatory school in Birmingham has plenty of tech-based learning on offer but also balances that with a good amount of physical play and arts-based learning. Balance is important and all use of tech should be teamed with plenty of fresh air and exercise.
