Protect children from harmful material and people on the Internet

There is various kind of information available on the internet, but some web sites and material are not appropriate for all viewers. The following are some actions you may take to keep your child safe online from potentially harmful or inappropriate content.

Talk

As your child begins to use the internet, it is necessary to talk openly with them about what they are viewing, reading, and talking with online, and do not break the conversation with them as they get older. Make a list of your children's favourite websites or apps and go through it with him or her. Discuss what you feel is acceptable with your kid, and remind them that other parents and their children may have other viewpoints.

You need to pay attention to your child and figure out what is best for you and your family. Because there will come a day when your children will need to use the internet outside of the safety of their own home, you should be prepared or teach important lessons about online activities now.

It is also crucial to teach them about proper behaviour, how to interact with people online, and how to represent themselves on such a prominent platform. They must constantly remember that the internet is a public space.

The following is a basic list of topics you may want to address with your child.

• Personal information: Never give out personal information in chat rooms, on websites, or through online forms. Personal information includes things like location, physical description, age, webcam addresses, selfies, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and usernames. Passwords, the name of your Internet service provider, where you go to school, and your grade should all be kept private.
• Never meet someone: Never meet someone you met online without your parents or guardians are present at the agreed-upon meeting location.
• Internet purchases: Never go inside a store that asks for your credit card number, personal information, or passwords. Also, do not enter if you are told to hang up and dial another number without parental consent.
• Downloads: Accepting a file or a download from another person is never a good idea.
• Web page: Without a guardian present or parent, do not browse web pages delivered to you by instant messaging, e-mail, or chat.
• Gifts: When you are online, you meet many people who may be strangers, do not accept any gift from these kinds of users.
• Friends: If you share your friend's contact information, it can help to track you. Therefore, do not give out your friend's information to anyone on the Internet.
• Personal pictures: Over a smartphone or the Internet, never send someone a private photograph.
• Talking about sex or provocative images: When you are online, do not tease other people online; chat about post sexual photographs or sex.
• Talk to you: Make sure your child knows it's okay to talk to you if they see something that disturbs them or makes them feel uneasy.

Teach your children to keep their location private

Geo-tagging is a function present in most applications, networks, and devices that allows you to share your location with others and perhaps bring them to you. Some, but not all, social networking platforms have the ability to automatically hide or erase this information, so do your homework and be mindful of how much information you're sharing.

Keep track of online time

According to the Guidelines of Australian Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior, children aged five to seventeen should not spend more than two hours every day in front of a screen. As a consequence, it's essential to keep a watch on what your child is doing online, especially if they are young, to ensure they do not acquire bad habits. Set a timer for 30 minutes each session and ask your kids to agree on a time frame. Keep in mind that this is a non-negotiable deadline.

In addition, if you have Wi-Fi installed in your house, you should switch it off at a particular time each night (ideally before sleep) so that everyone can get away from the computer. Make some days "screen-free" in your home to encourage everyone to participate in more physical and/or less technology-based activities.

Monitor use

Place the computer in a public area and supervise or browse the Internet with your children. It is not a good idea to keep a computer in your child's room. Consider installing a third-party filter to protect your computer from an unsuitable site if you need to monitor your children's use when you are away from them.

Note: It can be more difficult to keep track of your child's online activities with mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Consider keeping all charging cables in a public area such as the kitchen or turning off Wi-Fi at night to help protect them on these devices.

We strongly advise you to try the Family Safety application that comes with your Windows if you are running a newer version of Windows. With the help of using Internet Explorer Content Advisor on older versions of Windows that run Microsoft Internet Explorer, users can protect their families from hazardous content.

View Internet history

Examine your child's browser history regularly to ensure they are not accessing any inappropriate websites or erasing the history to hide what they are seeing. The browser address bar or location bar can provide additional information about what was put in the address.

Know who your children's online friends are

As adults, we are aware that some individuals on the internet are not who they claim to be, but children and teenagers may be dangerously unaware of who they are communicating with if they are not taught to be cyber-savvy from an early age.

Watch school websites

Keep an eye on your child's school website for any personal information about them, such as student photos, complete names, addresses, and so on. If a predator knows your child's entire name, school, or grade, they can use search engines in order to find this information.

View IM buddies

You need to examine your child's buddy list or friend list in order to protect them from unnecessary activities if your computer system has an Instant Messenger program.

• Social networking sites
  There are multiple social networking sites available such as MySpace, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook; these sites allow the users to communicate with others through the Internet. Therefore, Younger users choose these social networking sites. Unfortunately, because many individuals participating in them publish online photographs and personal information, these locations are regularly accessed by online predators. If your children are using these kinds of sites, you need to make sure they do not post their personal information like user ID, Password, Date of Birth, complete names, addresses and more. Parents or the child who created the account on social media sites, we strongly advise them to make their profile private through which only their friends and relatives may see their profile.
• Become their friend
  Becoming your child's friend is a great idea to keep track on what your child is doing and sharing on social media. Join the same social networking site that your children are using and add them as a friend or follow them.

Be 'share aware' to protect your privacy

If your child spends a lot of time on social media, they should be aware that photos and personal information might be made public.. Ask your child to show you what they're sharing on social media, or have an older sibling go over any photos before they go public. If your child uses social media to share photos or posts, ask them to show you what are publishing, or have an older sibling go over any photos with you before they become public.

Know the lingo

On the Internet, codes, slang, acronyms, and other languages abound, all of which are designed to obscure what is being communicated.

Protect them in games

Twitch is a popular platform for children and adults, which is used to watch other people play online games. Children should not swap in-game products for in-game services or real-life personal information or share personal information with other players, just as they should not give out personal information on the Internet.

Keep control of your family's digital footprint

A person's digital footprint is formed by every photo and personal detail published on social media and the internet. The major risk here is that if the information is released publicly, it may be used in unpredictable and unmanageable ways. You also need to think that your post on the internet is permanent because sometimes it can happen that others had seen your post as well save it before you deleted it.

Consequently, children and teenagers must be cautious when it comes to protecting their photos and personal information. You must also teach your child how to keep their digital footprint under control by only sharing with those with whom they are familiar and have confidence. On social media platforms, motivate your children to be selective and use the privacy settings they use instead of sharing with all of their friends.