How to keep your children safe online
Do you wonder what your children are doing when they’re online?
The chances are they’re simply chatting with friends, however, latest research from the NSPCC states that there has been a 44 per cent rise in child sex offences involving the internet in the last year.
With iPads, tablets and smart phones becoming a common site in most homes, the latest research from the NSPCC is unwanted news butin a bid to support worried parents, the NSPCC have launched a new app to help parents monitor and understand their children’s social media use.
Net Aware, which is available to download now, allows parents to find age ratings on the most popular social networking sites, learn the jargon and read reviews from the users. The app also lets parents discover how easy it is for their child to access inappropriate digital content.
Although learning what children are accessing online parents looking for more advice on online safety, should follow the NSPCC’s following tips.
You don’t need to be a digital whizz to talk your little one about online safety but opening a discussion and treating your child as an adult will inevitably see them respond better to your advice about using the internet safely. Talk with them and show them how to enable privacy settings, how to block someone and how to report someone or offensive content.
Whether you’re on Face Time, taking selfies on Snapchat or playing Minecraft, browsing the internet with a little one can is the best way for you both to understand more about their internet useage. It’ll also give the opportunity to discuss what the legal, ethical and moral issues of the internet.
You can’t supervise the kids constantly so blocking and filtering what your child sees online is the easiest way to protect them from unwanted communication and unsuitable websites. Parental controls can also stop kids from downloading, manage their online access and control the time spent online. After all an innocent search can turn dark very quickly, so install parental controls and you can rest assured they’re safe.