Keeping Kids Safe Online – Useful Links & Tips for Parents

AgeChecked & Tips for Parents

This page contains resources that parents can use to help their children stay safe online. As an independent provider of online age verification software, our goal is to make the internet a safe space for children. We believe age verification technology plays a crucial role in keeping children safe online.

While online vendors have a responsibility to keep their products safe from the hands of someone who is under 18, and our product helps them to do just that, we are often asked: “What can parents do to keep their children safe online?”

For this reason, we have selected content that offers practical advice that parents like you may find interesting and useful.

Parents Resources

10 Internet Safety Tips For Parents

(How To Help Your Child To Be Safe Online)

The internet can be an extremely useful resource for people of all ages, and it has become part of our everyday life. If you are a concerned parent and would like to keep your child safe online, read on for the top 10 tips on online safety written by a Primary Teacher in Australia.

“How do we keep children safe online while ensuring their technology use is positive and purposeful? This digital dilemma faces educators and parents worldwide.“ By Kathleen Morris, Primary Teacher in Australia.

  1. Don’t block all access to technology. Help your child learn to use tech safely and positively.
  2. Take an interest in your child’s favourite apps or sites. Co-view or co-create at times.
  3. Be the parent. You’re in charge. Set boundaries and consider using filtering software.
  4. Create a family of media agreement with tech-free zones such as cars, bedrooms and meals.
  5. Teach your child what personal information they should not reveal online (YAPPY acronym)
  6. Help your child learn to filter information online and navigate fact from fiction
  7. Navigate digital dilemmas with your child. Avoid using devices as rewards or punishments.
  8. Balance green time and screen time at home. Focus on basic developmental needs.
  9. Don’t support your child to sign up for sites with age restrictions (e.g. 13+) if they’re underage.
  10. Learn more: Explore reliable resources for parents so you can educate yourself.

Please find the original article here – The author has included a printable poster on online safety which you can download from her site.

Related links:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk

ISPs Parental Controls

Your home internet provider offers parental controls 

In the UK  the 4 big internet providers – BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media have all provided customers with free parental controls that you can turn on any time you like. If you want to know if this option is available in your country, simply check with your internet provider. 

Video guides on how to implement parental controls:

Figuring out what kind of parental control you should have is entirely based on your own family’s needs, and ISPs offer different solutions. Benefits of using ISPs parental controls can include: 

  • All the devices on your network are covered, not just computers but smartphones, tablets, and game consoles with built-in browsers.
  • You can schedule a time when the network shuts off; on some of them this feature allows you to decide which devices should no longer be online.
  • Router accessories for children – some apps and devices budget a certain number of minutes to each device and allows for children to earn internet minutes by completing household chores or homework.
  • You can easily restrict adult websites.

Parental controls can be a useful tool to decrease the chances your children may encounter inappropriate content online, but they are never 100% effective. Educating your child on how to stay safe online is key as well as letting them know that they can come to you and report any inappropriate behaviour from other online users.

Remember – The parental filters from your internet service provider (ISP) only works when the device is connected at home. If children and adolescents take the device outside and connect to a public wi-fi signal, such as their library or a cafe’, they may lose the security these filters provide. Always check that the public places they connect to have parental controls in place and are turned on.

Please find the original article here. 

Related links

BT

Sky

TalkTalk

Virgin Media

5 Best Apps To Keep Your Kids Screen Time Safe

If your kids use a mobile phone, tablet or laptop at home or at school, you may want a way to track or control what type of content they can access while online.

There are some excellent apps that can help you as a parent when it comes to children’s safe use of devices.

  1. KIDOZ Kid Mode: TV & Games.
    This allows parents to exercise a high degree of control over the type of content the kids consume. The app is available in 20 languages.
  2. SecureTeen Parental Control With Safe Browser.
    With the app, you can keep an eye on your child’s online activities, stay one step ahead of them through location alerts, and keep them guarded against harmful content.
  3. Mobicip Safe Browser.
    A Mobicip account allows you to adjust the internet filter or monitor browsing history on multiple tablets, smartphones and computers, all remotely from any computer or mobile device.
  4. Kid-safe YouTube – Parent controlled video TV.
    It includes a language filter, break time enforcement, iCloud sync, remote monitoring, bookmarking and blocking. This app has been designed with real parents and was created to help parents safeguard their kids while enjoying the benefit of fun and vast educating source on the YouTube platform.
  5. G Student.
    Gooseberry School teaches online safety in a unique way, joining teacher, student and parent together. The child learns through gamification, the teacher has a complete tool kit with a monitoring system and the parent can view their child’s performance.

Please find the original article here 

Related links

Apple on tips to parents

Google on tips to parents

Useful Links for Parents

To help you stay up to speed with the latest information and technology on online safety for children, we have selected several external resources for you to look at:

Children Online Safety – keeping children safe when they’re using the internet, social networks, apps, games and more.

The Experts in Digital Family Life – helping families to navigate the internet safely and confidently.

The latest online safety news, research, parents stories and more to stay informed.

Online safety tips, advice and resources to help children and young people stay safe online.

10 Internet Safety Tips for Parents (How to Help Your Child to be Safe Online)

2020 Vision: The Future of Online Safety The policies, practices and parenting we’ll need in 2020 and beyond.

Help your family create healthy digital habits – Family Link app lets you set digital ground rules to help guide them as they learn, play, and explore online.

Rating movies, TV shows, books, and more so parents can feel good about the entertainment choices they make for their kids.

AgeChecked is not responsible for the content posted on external sites, we do not exercise control over the information you may find at these locations. You can contribute to this page by sending us links to great tools and resources, simply share them with us:

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