Best Ways to Protect Your Kids on the Internet – Guest Post

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Read on there’s a lot of valuable information below to help protect our children on the internet.

There are a lot of dangerous things online. There are child predators, adult websites, malware, and inappropriate websites that can do a lot of damage to your children. Protecting your child online seems like it might be difficult, but it’s actually not that hard. Just use these tips, and you should have no problem keeping your child safe as he or she uses the Internet.

 

Public Computers

Most children want their own computer, but this makes it difficult to watch what he or she does online. It also puts the child in complete control of the Internet. It is better to have one public computer that the entire family uses. This makes it easier to see what your child is doing online by coming into the room, looking at the browsing history or by using certain programs to ensure that your child doesn’t go to bad websites.

Use Professional Filters

Using a filtering program will keep your child from visiting inappropriate websites. These filters will block website before they load, and most also provide a report that you can read. This report will show what websites your child went to, and what websites were blocked.

You can use this to ensure your child’s safety. Most filters can also be customized to block any websites that you personally don’t want your child to see. For example, most of these filters do not block social media websites, but you can customize them to block Facebook and Twitter.

 Make and Explain Rules

If you just tell your child that he or she cannot visit certain websites, then your child will probably try that much harder just to see what you are holding them back from. You should make concrete rules so that your child knows what he or she cannot see online, and you should explain these rules.

If your child understands the damage that can occur from going to inappropriate websites or talking to people online, then your child will be less likely to break the rules.

Share an Account

Most computers allow users to make different accounts. Make an account that both you and your child share. This will make it much easier to monitor your child’s online activity.

You should also make an email address that both you and your child use. Online correspondence can be very dangerous. This is how most predators talk to children, and it is also how they convince a child to meet them in private. Having a shared email address allows you to peek in and watch the correspondence. This ensures that you can quickly stop any conversations that are dangerous.

Block Chat Rooms

There are many online chat rooms that are appropriate for children, but there are just as many that are inappropriate or dangerous. Tell your child that he or she cannot enter a chat room without your permission and supervision.

This will dramatically decrease the chance of your child stumbling into a predator, and it will ensure that your child only goes on appropriate chat rooms.

Go Online Together

This works best for younger children, but some teens might be open to this. Directly watching your child online allows you to see what type of websites your child goes to, and most children would not try to visit an inappropriate website when you are around.

There is another reason for this. By watching your child, you can see how technologically savvy he or she is. For example, your child might have found out a way to bypass any filters or blocks you put on the computer, and you can figure this out by seeing how advanced your child is.

Conclusion

There are many dangers lurking online. While the Internet is full of information and fun websites, it is also full of predators, adult websites and other things that can hurt or damage your child. Your child may not like being watched, but you are doing this for his or her protection.

Just follow the above tips, and you should have no problem shielding your child from the terrible things that can be found online. It doesn’t take much work, and you might spend just a few minutes a day checking your child’s history for anything bad.

Author Bio

Katelyn writes on a variety of internet protection for Bit9 security solutions.