The internet helps your children do their assignments, research at school and keeps them updated with their friends. These features make the internet excellent for your children. But parents, beware of online access, for it can also cause desperation to children.
On the internet, cyberbullying is rampant wherein your child is being attacked. Some people who are using the same app or websites as your kids often engage with fraudulent and malicious schemes. There is no more internet safety if your kids are asked about their information, like passwords, addresses, or even phone numbers.
Such risks lead parents to provide their kids with cardinal rules for internet safety. To effectively implement these cardinal rules to your kids, parents should be their role models in doing it too. If you show your kids your responsibility to stand by your rules, practice them and lead by example to them, the more your child becomes obedient.
Parents must know who their kids are talking with online, give time to speak with them, set these cardinal rules with their time online, and keep an eye on what they do.
Internet safety cardinal rules parents should consider
1. Leaving your device unattended is a big no!
Always remind your kids not to leave their things such as smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other gadgets that may contain their personal information.
Parents should be aware that cybercriminals now are more often using the data they steal than selling their child's gadgets. Criminals are very good at digging your information and using them in committing identity theft. Better safe than sorry, and start telling your kids the importance of keeping an eye on their belongings.
For the internet safety of your kids who are a very high potential in identity theft, keep them aware of the cases like this, as they must probably have your details in their gadgets for school and other activities.
2. Give your kids protection tools online
Parents use online resources to limit their kids' access online. Parental controls are now available from many Internet service providers to enable internet safety. Parents can also use software to block websites and stop sending personal information on the internet. At the same time, there are other programs that parents can use if they want to track and control the online behavior of their children.
3. Manage your password to be strong
Remind your kids always to keep your passwords between the two of you. And that your password is not something you can easily give to someone else. There is a tendency that your password may be the same as the others, so to keep your password strong, use a secret code that is not relevant to birthdays or any dates important to you.
4. Keep involved with social media for your kids
Social media often does not let kids that are 13 years old below sign up on their online platforms, but for some reason, some other parents allow their kids to do so. If this happens, for your kids' safety, open their privacy settings and keep them private. Then, remind your kids not to add or even accept the people whom you didn't know, or they don't know. To be sure because you will never know who is lurking at your kids' social media accounts.
