5 Tips to Safeguard Children from Inappropriate Online Content
Today, I decided to come out of my comfort zone and want to secure the young generation from inappropriate online content. The content that is affecting children minds with full of perilous darkness, which brainwashes them into doing things that might not be portrait for them.
This task is laden with opportunities, yet it is frantic with dreadful consequences. However, it affects the existence of those children, who have already been hunted by toxic online content and malicious individuals, such as child molesters.
The time has changed now, as online websites have the freedom to market content like R-rated ads or fetish products for adults without having concern about who is the audience.
Imagine, your kids are busy watching their favorite cartoon on YouTube, but they end up streaming something that they should not have, such as explicit content involving Spiderman and Elsa. On the other hand, while playing a game online, suddenly a flavored condom ad appears on the screen.
As a parent, this was something I could not live with!
Therefore, after going through extensive research, I found some effective tips that could help parents in safeguarding their children from inappropriate online content.
So without wasting time, let’s find out what these tips are.
Educate and Communicate with Your Children
As we communicate with our children to nurture them about life, it is similar to educating them regarding the online threats and is the key to safeguarding them from inappropriate online content.
I believe that this educating process will be fruitful if you involved it in regular conversations regarding which type of online content is good for them.
Tell them stories that include the demerits of dark online content and how a good person can avoid them while using the internet. This will make your children understand and they will be able to differentiate between what type of content is good or bad for them.
Show Interest in What Your Children Like to Do Online
It is natural that children love to get the attention from their parents and guardians without maintaining any confidentiality about it. And there is no doubt that we can’t stop children from using the internet.
The Internet is now a necessity for learning purposes. Most of the schools have their own online websites from where children have to complete and submit their assignments, class projects or homework. This is the best opportunity for you to show interest in their online activities and start asking questions like:
- Which online social platforms do you like to use?
- What kind of groups are you part of on social platforms?
- Which websites do you like the most?
- Which streaming website do you like to use to watch your favorite cartoon?
- Do you have any online friends on social platforms whom you never met in person?
- What is your favorite website to play online games?
This kind of questions help you to monitor what kind of online activities your children are doing, and if you find something suspicious or inappropriate, you can tell them what is good or bad for them and gain their trust.
Ask Children for Assistance in Doing Online Activities
Since the young generation is more involved in online activities than we are, this scenario can be used for keeping an eye on their activities.
It is natural that children are always sparky to show their skills and things they learn. Therefore, you can ask their assistance in doing online activities. In this way, you can get all the information about what they know and how they do it.
By doing this, you can think and implement online privacy and security controls for their protection, if necessary.
Moreover, ask them to help you in creating your profile, email ID and how to follow someone online. This will help you in finding insights of your children’s behavior regarding how they react while performing sensitive online tasks.
If you find them doing something unethical and inappropriately, without letting them know that this is not the right way, first ask them from where did they learn this technique and who told them this is the right way.
In this way, you get all the insights, and now you can assist your children regarding what kind of online actions and activities are inappropriate.
Limit the Children Online Activities
If the above-mentioned tips don’t work appropriately in your case, there is another way to safeguard your children from inappropriate online content by setting limits or boundaries. It is important to set boundaries according to their age, behavior and online security.
The rules and boundaries include hours they can use internet on the daily or weekly basis: the time they are allowed to go online, where they can use the internet in the home (do not allow them to use the internet in privacy such as a bedroom).
You could setup boundaries restricting them to access websites where there is a chance they could get a glimpse of inappropriate online content (R-rated ads and banners). It can also prevent them from visiting communities that are not suitable for them (where online child molesters can engage them in dark activities).
Restrict them to share their personal information, pictures, and videos where everything is public and the user cannot control. Keep checking them what they are posting or making comments that they would not say in front of you.
In case if your child is involved in online gaming, check PG ratings (Parental Guidance) of all the games before permitting them to play. And ask them with whom they play online and if they never met them in person, restrict them to share their personal information with them.
Use Parental Control Software and Features
Sometimes educating and discussing with children can make them resist as they grow up and feel like interference in their privacy, especially teenagers. From there, parents feel clueless about how to safeguard their children from inappropriate online content.
However, thanks to the tech industry, there are advance ways to control our children online activities with the help of Parental Control features.
Parental Control feature comes with multiple devices that we use in our daily life such as smartphones, smart cars, Wi-Fi, tablets and much more.
With the help of this Parental Control feature, you can control your children activities by restricting websites and platforms where there is a chance of having inappropriate or adult contents. Furthermore, you can restrict different apps on devices, which are not suitable for children’s use.
This Parental Control feature also gives access to their account that helps in monitoring and tracking their activities, such as to whom they are talking, what kind of posts and comments they are performing on multiple websites.
Final Verdict
Since the internet is becoming a necessity for our children, it is necessary to safeguard them from inappropriate online content.
We know it is grueling but not impossible to accomplish. By following the above-mentioned tips, we think with patience every parent will be able to keep their children away from dark content and online child molesters.
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