Kids today are smart little humans and keeping stuff from them is never a good idea, especially in the era of technology that we all reside in.
When parents come to experts concerned about their kids’ safety, the first and foremost thing that we recommend to all of them is that they need to sit down and have the “internet talk” with them. This is the perfect module for instilling trust in both parties for each other.
Moreover, as a parent, you also become aware of what your kid is thinking and would react to different changes that you would like to be implemented when you form an internet code of conduct in your household.
Other than that, there are a few more tips that we give parents to make the internet a safe zone for their offspring.
Place Computers in Common Places
Keeping computers in familiar places gives your kid the impression that someone is always watching. This means they have very limited time windows to try something that you would otherwise not allow.
Familiar places could include your living room or even a small area in your kitchen. Laptop users can actively limit their children from using the computer only on the kitchen slab and nowhere else.
This way you will not have to monitor your child’s computer usage individually but can merely sneak onto the screen on your way around.
Need Dependant Usage
If your household is based on using conventional computers, then you need to make sure the parental control and monitoring software that you have primarily installed for your kids’ is not keeping tabs on your as well or restricting your usage in any way.
To do this, you need to make sure there are separate profiles on your PC for your kids and you. Monitoring applications help you keep track of your child’s online usage.
This way you will always know what your kid is looking at and searching about. And accordingly, you can place measures.
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Adult Content Controls
Installing parental control applications are usually made to keep children from either just randomly happening upon adult sites or for those who are actively searching them.
By blocking specific keywords, you can limit a lot of other sites that you would otherwise not be able to prevent individually.
Moreover, you can also keep track of complete search histories of the computer that your kids use. Parental monitoring applications allow you to track anything your child searches on the World Wide Web and save it in an online cloud.
Limit Uploads and Downloads
Another feature of spy applications is to limit the size of any file that is being uploaded or downloaded. This means your kid cannot download everything.
The software will automatically block any downloads and uploads taking place above a specific limit. This way your kid will not be able to upload a lot of pictures and information about themselves which is otherwise considered personal.
When it comes to downloads, you don’t want your kid to spend excessive time downloading movies that are not made for their age group either. Similarly, you can also block content from specific sites and domains like pornography sites.
Time Limits
Some monitoring softwares are also designed to limit the time spent on the internet. Limiting internet usage can be done in two ways; by restricting the amount of data usage or limiting the time.
By limiting the time, you are placing a sanction on the amount of time your kid spends on the internet for any activity.
Different parental control applications also offer weekly schedules for internet usage which means setting limits on when the net will be available and when not.
This way your kid will also learn the importance of time management, and overall, it will be a win-win situation for all.
Conclusion
The Internet is not a safe place for children to be left to wonder about openly. There are things and people that your kid is too innocent to comprehend at the moment, and that is why it is your job to make sure the internet that your kid is exposed to is safe and secure.
This can be easily done via parental control applications that help you not only monitor your kids’ online activity but also assist you in place sanctions on places that your kid should not come across.
Every household has a different kind of dynamic structure. Therefore, these monitoring applications offer you a variety of settings that you can work around according to your specifically tailored needs.
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About the Author:Nicki is a professional social analyst and blogger. Her work on teen parental safety and social issues have collected great appreciation from readers. She is a diverse reader but mostly focuses on including subjects such as protecting oneself from the dangers of the online world especially teen protection and the guidelines for using different cellular applications in her write-ups.
