When it comes to your children, it’s important to keep them safe and for any parent, safety is of absolute importance. There are dangers in life both online and offline, which is why it’s good to be vigilant and to be aware of what could pose a threat to your child or children.
Keeping your children safe online and offline is something that is part and parcel of living in this digital age. With that being said, here are some helpful tips for keeping your children safe online and offline.
Agree on some boundaries
Firstly, it’s important to agree on some boundaries. Boundaries even for parents and children are essential to have in place because if you don’t set them, you could end up at some point, pushing them away.
It’s good to know when you’re potentially overstepping the mark as a parent as it’s something that you can naturally do. You might not intend to do it, but you’ll want to catch yourself when you do overstep it.
Agreeing on boundaries is a way of ensuring a healthy relationship between yourself and your child or children. Think about what these boundaries will be depending on the age of the child and how much they understand at this point. For example, there may be more boundaries in place once your child is a teenager.
Explore the online world together
Keeping your children safe online is important and it can feel like a daunting prospect to tackle. It’s worth approaching the online world together rather than letting them go on it alone to begin with. By educating them on the online world, it’s going to set them up on the right footing, so that they don’t make any mistakes.
Of course, there are mistakes that can happen. With that being said, if they are at the point where they want to explore the online domain, then it’s useful to sit down with them. Explain the realities of going online and what’s lurking out there. You might want to block certain websites to ensure they don’t click on them accidentally.
As technology has become a major part of everyone’s day to day life, children are becoming more aware of it and wanting to access it a lot earlier than you might want to give it to them. However, if you’re willing to give them access, sit with them until they’re of an age where you’re comfortable for them to browse alone.
Choose age-appropriate apps and sites
As its already been mentioned, the types of apps and sites your children explore can be controlled by you to a certain extent. As they become more independent and have their own mobile/electronic devices, kids will have a knack for getting onto sites and apps that you didn’t want them to go on.
You can only do so much so when you’re looking to keep your kids safe online, opt for age-appropriate apps and sites. When they’re online, you can set your internet preferences so that you can limit certain sites individually. You could also limit what they can search for.
With apps, they’ve grown into quite a sizeable industry. What started out with just a few apps back in its infancy, there are now tens of thousands. To help limit the amount of apps they get access to, you might want to put a password on their phones. This will ensure they only download the apps that you’d like them to have.
If they try to reset the password, then it’s good to have it set up with your email, rather than their own.
Monitor online activities under a certain age
Monitoring online activities is something that you want to be mindful of because even though you feel you know and trust your child to make safe decisions, it’s not always the reality. We’d like to believe we know everything about our kids but it’s something to question, especially when it comes to online activity.
To help with monitoring your online activity, you might look to add their devices to your internet security. A lot of internet providers and firewall safety systems have parameters in place that you can utilize in order to protect your kids from the dangers online.
When your kids are under a certain age, you have a duty as a parent to look out for any signs that they’re on a site or navigating the internet in a dangerous manner. There are strangers out there who will exploit your children if you’re not careful, so it’s good to be mindful when monitoring their activities.
Whether they’re harmlessly playing mahjong or speaking to people on chat forums, you should be wary.
Educate them on talking to strangers
While you don’t want to make them fearful of every interaction they have, you should be educating them on the dangers of talking to strangers. Most people don’t have harmful intentions for other people but it’s often the luck of the draw that one day, a person will run into another person that wants to cause harm.
Agree on some boundaries
Firstly, it’s important to agree on some boundaries. Boundaries even for parents and children are essential to have in place because if you don’t set them, you could end up at some point, pushing them away.
It’s good to know when you’re potentially overstepping the mark as a parent as it’s something that you can naturally do. You might not intend to do it, but you’ll want to catch yourself when you do overstep it.
Agreeing on boundaries is a way of ensuring a healthy relationship between yourself and your child or children. Think about what these boundaries will be depending on the age of the child and how much they understand at this point. For example, there may be more boundaries in place once your child is a teenager.
Explore the online world together
Keeping your children safe online is important and it can feel like a daunting prospect to tackle. It’s worth approaching the online world together rather than letting them go on it alone to begin with. By educating them on the online world, it’s going to set them up on the right footing, so that they don’t make any mistakes.
Of course, there are mistakes that can happen. With that being said, if they are at the point where they want to explore the online domain, then it’s useful to sit down with them. Explain the realities of going online and what’s lurking out there. You might want to block certain websites to ensure they don’t click on them accidentally.
As technology has become a major part of everyone’s day to day life, children are becoming more aware of it and wanting to access it a lot earlier than you might want to give it to them. However, if you’re willing to give them access, sit with them until they’re of an age where you’re comfortable for them to browse alone.
Choose age-appropriate apps and sites
As its already been mentioned, the types of apps and sites your children explore can be controlled by you to a certain extent. As they become more independent and have their own mobile/electronic devices, kids will have a knack for getting onto sites and apps that you didn’t want them to go on.
You can only do so much so when you’re looking to keep your kids safe online, opt for age-appropriate apps and sites. When they’re online, you can set your internet preferences so that you can limit certain sites individually. You could also limit what they can search for.
With apps, they’ve grown into quite a sizeable industry. What started out with just a few apps back in its infancy, there are now tens of thousands. To help limit the amount of apps they get access to, you might want to put a password on their phones. This will ensure they only download the apps that you’d like them to have.
If they try to reset the password, then it’s good to have it set up with your email, rather than their own.
Monitor online activities under a certain age
Monitoring online activities is something that you want to be mindful of because even though you feel you know and trust your child to make safe decisions, it’s not always the reality. We’d like to believe we know everything about our kids but it’s something to question, especially when it comes to online activity.
To help with monitoring your online activity, you might look to add their devices to your internet security. A lot of internet providers and firewall safety systems have parameters in place that you can utilize in order to protect your kids from the dangers online.
When your kids are under a certain age, you have a duty as a parent to look out for any signs that they’re on a site or navigating the internet in a dangerous manner. There are strangers out there who will exploit your children if you’re not careful, so it’s good to be mindful when monitoring their activities.
Whether they’re harmlessly playing mahjong or speaking to people on chat forums, you should be wary.
Educate them on talking to strangers
While you don’t want to make them fearful of every interaction they have, you should be educating them on the dangers of talking to strangers. Most people don’t have harmful intentions for other people but it’s often the luck of the draw that one day, a person will run into another person that wants to cause harm.
Educate your children on the dangers of talking to strangers so that you can rest easy knowing that if they find themselves in a situation where they’re talking to someone unsavory, they can remove themselves from it safely. At the same time, knowing what to do should they ever be in that situation is also key. We often warn children about stranger danger but we don’t expand on what to do should their life be threatened.
For example, telling them to run when danger is present and to call for help. For older kids, learning self-defense can also be handy.
Make sure they learn about consent
Learning about consent is a big one because this is something that’s highly important when it comes to relationships and situations where they might have someone in a position of authority taking advantage.
Consent is given and it’s also something that should be asked too. Whether it’s them asking for consent or giving it, it should be educated to your little ones, whatever their age. Even for youngsters, having an understanding of what’s right and wrong when it comes to consent is important. It could help them avoid trauma or other potentially harmful situations.
Build your relationship so that you can talk about everything
Building a relationship with your children is key and it’s something that you should constantly be improving upon. As they get older, you’ll find that the relationship gets more challenging, especially when they become teenagers.
However, if you’re open with them, and provide them with the space they need when they need it, then you’ll have a better relationship with them. The ability to be able to talk about anything and everything with your children is one that’s worth cherishing and nurturing where you can.
Make sure they know how to express their feelings
Talking of relationships, how do your children currently express their feelings? It’s good to communicate with them so that you can understand how they’re feeling on a regular basis. Having children that can express their feelings confidently and without feeling embarrassed, will make them into well-rounded individuals as they get older.
This can only happen though if you’re open and honest about your own feelings. Be the role model that you can your kids to have in your life.
Keeping your kids safe online and offline is important, so use these tips to help ensure they are safe and secure in the real world and the digital one.
