{"id":2795,"date":"2013-09-26T13:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T17:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/?p=2795"},"modified":"2020-02-27T03:35:41","modified_gmt":"2020-02-26T16:35:41","slug":"top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2795\/","title":{"rendered":"Share And Share Alike? Top Ten Tips For Keeping Kids Safer Online"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are potential risks that we all face online. These include malware, phishing scams and junk-mail.\u00a0 But there\u2019s an added dimension where children are concerned.\u00a0 They\u2019re less worldly-wise, so they are typically less wary about sharing information or responding to fraudulent messages or clicking on links on web pages.<\/p>\n

\"kids_title_EN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There are also specific dangers that children face. These include obviously undesirable content like pornography, violence and drugs, but also sites focused on self-harm or even suicide.\u00a0 Sadly, inappropriate material can be just a few clicks away:\u00a0 objectionable content can be displayed alongside search items as innocuous as \u2018Peppa Pig\u2019, \u2018Dora the Explorer\u2019, \u2018Fireman Sam\u2019 or other items that we\u2019re happy for our children to view.<\/p>\n

Children can also be exposed to banner ads on pages they visit. You may wonder what fraudsters hope to gain by delivering context-sensitive advertisements to children.\u00a0 But a lot of children use their parents\u2019 credit cards and this makes them a prime target. It\u2019s less a problem of fraudsters peddling bogus products and services than it is about children looking to pay for online goods like computer games, books, films and in-app purchases inside games on laptops, tablets and smartphones.<\/p>\n

Parents are more worldly-wise, but they\u2019re often less tech-savvy. Children have no trouble driving the technology, but are often blithely unaware of the potential dangers.<\/div>\n

Hide nothing, share everything<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u2019s another aspect to online safety too. Our children are growing up in a culture of \u2018share everything\u2019.\u00a0 Social networks allow them to treat the web like the notice-board in the family kitchen \u2013 and they do. They post information about where they are, who they\u2019re with, what they\u2019re doing \u2013 with pictures to illustrate this narrative of their lives. But while the notice-board in the kitchen is accessible only to family and friends, what\u2019s posted on a social network could be shared with the whole world. Personal information could be used by an online predator to profile a child or teenager, get their trust and then try to arrange to meet them in the real world.\u00a0 Shared pictures can be used by their peers to bully or coerce them.\u00a0 Adults are more likely to see the inherent problem in the \u2018share everything\u2019 culture, but children don\u2019t \u2013 until something goes wrong.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Technology generation gap<\/b><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we face a technology generation gap. Parents are more worldly-wise, but they\u2019re often less tech-savvy.\u00a0 They don\u2019t always understand what\u2019s possible with today\u2019s technology. Children have no trouble driving the technology, but are often blithely unaware of the potential dangers.<\/p>\n

Children need to know that there\u2019s good and bad online \u2013 just as, when a child is old enough we introduce road safety and the importance of staying close to us.<\/div>\n

Monitor and mentor<\/b><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important for parents to involve themselves in their children\u2019s online activities from a very young age, so they can \u2018mentor\u2019 their children and help to shape and inform their online experiences.\u00a0 Of course, the online safety message needs to be tailored to the age of a child. We can\u2019t expect a young child to understand the intricacies of online threats.\u00a0 But they need to know that there\u2019s good and bad online \u2013 just as, when a child is old enough to walk around town with us, we introduce road safety and the importance of staying close to us.\u00a0 It\u2019s also important explain the online safety equivalent of road crossings too \u2013 using Internet security software<\/a> to block harmful code, the need to protect things that belong to us with a password, the danger of disclosing personal information, and so on.\u00a0 These messages need to be reinforced and developed as a child gets older.\u00a0 But if they\u2019re \u2018on board\u2019 with security from an early age, they\u2019re less likely to see security measures as an encumbrance.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s our list of top tips for keeping your children safe online.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Talk to them about the potential dangers.<\/li>\n
  2. Involve yourself in your childrens\u2019 online activities from an early age so this is the established norm, and so you can \u2018mentor\u2019 them.<\/li>\n
  3. Encourage them to talk to you about their online experience and, in particular, anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or threatened.<\/li>\n
  4. Today\u2019s \u2018share everything\u2019 culture is pervasive. Children are less likely to instinctively recognise the inherent dangers in oversharing, so it\u2019s important to spell out the potential problems.<\/li>\n
  5. Set clear ground-rules about what they can and can\u2019t do online and explain why you have put them in place. You should review these as your child gets older.<\/li>\n
  6. Use parental control software<\/a> to establish the framework for what\u2019s acceptable \u2013 how much time (and when) they can spend online, what content should be blocked, what types of activity should be blocked (chat rooms, forums, etc).\u00a0 Parental control filters can be configured for different computer profiles, allowing you to customise the filters for different children.<\/li>\n
  7. Encourage your children to be vigilant about their privacy and settings on social media sites so that posts are only visible to selected friends and family.<\/li>\n
  8. Wordly-wise vs tech savvy: you may be more aware of the potential pitfalls of the internet, but the chances are your children are more technologically clued up. Encourage an exchange of information so that you can both learn from each other.<\/li>\n
  9. Protect the computer using Internet security software.<\/li>\n
  10. Don\u2019t forget their smartphone \u2013 these are sophisticated computers, not just phones.\u00a0 Most smartphones come with parental controls and security software providers may offer apps to filter out inappropriate content, senders of nuisance SMS messages, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There are potential risks that we all face online. These include malware, phishing scams and junk-mail.\u00a0 But there\u2019s an added dimension where children are concerned.\u00a0 They\u2019re less worldly-wise, so they<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":2797,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[288,410],"class_list":{"0":"post-2795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tips","8":"tag-children","9":"tag-online-safety"},"hreflang":[{"hreflang":"en-au","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2795\/"},{"hreflang":"en-in","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.in\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2492\/"},{"hreflang":"en-ae","url":"https:\/\/me-en.kaspersky.com\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2392\/"},{"hreflang":"en-us","url":"https:\/\/usa.kaspersky.com\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2599\/"},{"hreflang":"en-gb","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.uk\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2448\/"},{"hreflang":"x-default","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2795\/"},{"hreflang":"ja","url":"https:\/\/blog.kaspersky.co.jp\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/1637\/"},{"hreflang":"en-za","url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.co.za\/blog\/top-ten-tips-for-keeping-kids-safer-online\/2795\/"}],"acf":[],"banners":"","maintag":{"url":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/tag\/children\/","name":"children"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2795"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26095,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2795\/revisions\/26095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}