Online safety is one of the most important things that you can teach your children! Unfortunately many parents forget about this, or just assume that certain things are obvious, and they are not obvious to kids at all! So it is crucial to sit down with your children and set ground rules about what they are and are not allowed to do, so they stay safe online.
Children spend a lot of time on electronic devices and on the internet – especially as they go back to school – so now is the perfect time to go over healthy online practices.
Here are six important tips about online safety for kids.
Set Limits
Kids spend lots and lots of hours online. In a recent survey 92% of teens say they go online daily, and 24% of those teens are online “almost constantly.” Like most teens my 16 year old son is online daily. Much of his online time is school related – but he also checks out football statistics and Minecraft videos regularly. It is important to know how much time your children are online, and to know what they are doing when they are online, because it is quite likely that they aren’t spending as much time on “homework” as they’d like you to believe.
Install Monitoring Software
We have parental controls set on our computer, both to block inappropriate sites and to see where time is being spent. My husband I receive a weekly email that tells us how much time our son has been online, and what sites he has visited. It also lists any sites he has tried to visit that were blocked. We just use the built in parental controls for Windows, and they are free, easy to setup and comprehensive.
Teach Them Online Responsibility
Kids need to know not to give out identifying information online. A few years ago when my daughter was 14 she was on an online site that wanted a phone number for entering a sweepstakes. She knew not to give out her phone number, so instead she gave them my cell phone number, and I received spam calls on my phone for months! So make kids understand that they shouldn’t be entering any information about age, hometown or address without checking with you first.
Talk About Etiquette
Cyberbullying is a huge issue, and it is very easy for kids to become involved in it. Make sure your children understand the importance of being kind and polite. And ask them to let you know right away if they or one of their friends are being bullied online or by texts.
Be Aware
Technology is constantly changing, and parents need to keep up. You need to know what the current “hot” apps among teens are, like Snap Chat or Yik Yak. If an app is popular among teens you should check it out, and see if it is a good idea for your child to be using it. If your child has a Youtube channel or a Tumblr blog you should know about it, and be following it. Otherwise you might be blindsided by something that is going on right under your nose.
The Smart Talk Tool
To help parents navigate these issues Lifelock and National PTA have developed The Smart Talk tool.  This will help you and your family sit down together and develop a Smart Talk family contract that will help encourage your children to develop healthy digital habits. I sat down with my son and went through the tool, because like most families we had discussed online safety verbally, but did not have a written contract.
The tool provides an interactive experience that guides you through a series of questions and conversations about topics such as safety and privacy, screen time, social media, apps and downloads, texting, reputation and respect and online videos and cameras. As a typical sixteen year old my son rolled his eyes when I told him I wanted to go through the site with him, but when were done he had to grudgingly admit he had learned some things. We printed out the contract and signed it, which makes it seem much more official and important.
Visit the Smart Talk site to check out the online safety resources and create your own personalized family contract to encourage healthy digital habits.
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
