As the Internet continues to be a big part of our daily lives, it isn’t easy to keep children safe.
The Internet has many benefits, especially in enhancing children’s creativity, but it also comes with a lot of dangers that children aren’t always privy to.
As such, the best option is to introduce children to the Internet carefully instead of completely banning them.
Proper Age
The first step is making sure that your child doesn’t access the Internet when they are too young to understand what it is. Most kids want to have an online presence because their peers are doing it, but that is not a good reason to let them.
You can allow the child to access specific apps that they use to enhance their creativity, but make sure you check the appropriate age for them.
Ensuring that your child uses their real age when signing up for those apps can also help because most of them have age restrictions.
Limited Time
Monitoring the children’s activities on the Internet and the amount of time they spend online is another great way of making sure they remain safe. Failing to limit the amount of time they spend online will allow them to explore and visits sites they are not supposed to. The more they remain online, the more they will be exposed to virtual predators as well.
Introduce them to educational websites and games and install an ad blocker so they don’t see inappropriate content accidentally.
Parental Control
One of the best ways to make sure the child does not use the Internet without your knowledge is installing a password and blocking inappropriate websites for the child. You could also use online resources like Spokeo to control your child in the network.
Monitoring what they do when they are online may seem like an invasion of their privacy, but it a necessity. Using this tool is simple. All you’ll have to do is use Spokeo lookup option to do a phone number search or email search and find out the location, email address, and social media accounts of the people your child is communicating with online and also to find you child accounts and control the content he/she posts on the media. This way of monitoring is better because it allows you to protect your child without being too intrusive.
Communication
Sometimes even reverse phone lookup isn’t enough to offer the kind of protection you desire. It’s therefore essential that you share information about online scams and online hates and try to be honest as much as possible.
Information sharing is more effective when the child is old enough to understand what cyberbullying is. Talk to them about different types of cyberbullying and the platforms where they are most likely to occur. This will alert them on possible signs to look for and the right measures to take in case they notice them. You should also educate the child on the dangers of communicating with people they don’t know, even if it’s just online.
Try to be as detailed as possible because the more the child understands the complex nature of the online world, the more careful and safe they are. Being the first to educate them about the Internet will also increase their trust in you and help them open up to you about any questions and concerns about online presence.
Conclusion
The potential dangers of the Internet should not take away its benefits. Make sure you highlight the benefits as well when talking about the bad parts. As the child gets older, you can introduce them to Spokeo and teach them how to perform an email search to avoid falling prey to strangers online.
Maguire Haigh is a content marketing manager for Spokeo. He is an expert in the business sphere. He prefers writing articles on marketing, social media presence, travel and startup topics. Maguire has great experience in travelling and deep knowledge of 5 foreign languages.