You try hard to keep your kids safe from so many different risks, but they are exposed to endless online threats every day. Predators, offensive content, attempts at identity theft, and other things in real life that you wouldn't let them encounter are all waiting for them.
Shockingly, 1 in 5 U.S. teens say strangers online have confronted them in a sexual manner; only 25% told their parents. As a parent, that’s terrifying.
Thanks to websites like YouTube and Reddit, young people have access to a virtually limitless pool of content. Worse, the Internet, the growth of smartphones, and the culture of social media allow us from anywhere to access these things. No matter what you think about it or how much you know about it, sites like YouTube are changing the way kids grow up.
Although it isn't necessarily a bad thing, kids have more access, some good and some bad, to new sources of information. It's easy to find useful information on YouTube, but stumbling across harmful or even malicious content is like that.
Limiting What Your Kids Watch on YouTube?
The response to this question is not straightforward. Fortunately, when it comes to managing YouTube and Internet access, there are choices open to parents.
The number one priority for parents should be to teach their children to protect themselves online and use social media safely. You can't control anything your child does all the time as a mom, and older teens may want some digital privacy (and truly need it). Instead, when teaching your kids how to protect themselves online, concentrate on being vigilant about their protection.
Online Strangers
In addition to helping you to communicate with close friends and family members, websites such as Instagram and Twitter also open up contact with total strangers. Almost half of Facebook users accept friend requests from individuals they have never met before, and most users are acquainted with social media reports or chat requests that have gone wrong. But did you know that YouTube facilitates comments on most videos and that links posted by predatory adults hidden behind false profiles can be found in those comments sections?
What Do Children Do On The Internet
The Pew Research Center discovered in 2015 that 92% of teenagers go online every day and that 75% own a smartphone. An Australian study later revealed that in the past month, 95 percent of 8- to 11-year-olds accessed the Internet.
YouTube, Facebook, and online games like Roblox were the most frequent websites they used. In reality, for many younger users, email and even text messages have taken a backseat to social media. Platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and others have an almost limitless content supply.
Apps For Parental Controls
Many modern computers, applications, and web browsers provide parental controls that limit children's access to certain content, but did you know that parental controls are already included in many antivirus software titles? With one installation, you have two layers of security. Some common alternatives include:
- Bitdefender - The premium edition of Bitdefender comes with a lot of features, but some of them are distracting. These features include a filter for webcams, activity logs, history, and warnings, tracking of social media and cell phones, IP monitoring and blocking, monitoring of SMS and calls, blocking of websites and applications, and tracking locations.
- Norton-this household name involves the supervision of time, network, search, social media, and location, personal data security, access request, and support for up to 10 devices.
- Avast – the website blocking feature is less intrusive than the other options mentioned. Parents can block websites and keywords that are unique.
A fast search will show you which antivirus software contains parental controls, but in our experience, education and communication are the best way to promote healthy Internet browsing.
Most sites, such as Netflix, have built-in parental controls that limit passcode content. Kid-focused user accounts are enabled by Netflix to block adult-only shows. In their setting's menus, iPhones also have parental controls.
Through downloading such apps, some tech-savvy children can circumvent parental controls. Prevent them from doing so by giving them access to non-administrator user accounts on your operating system. Most would only allow new apps to be installed through those accounts.
Finally, teaching your children about some intelligent browsing habits goes a long way to ensuring their safety. You want them to be taught:
- Never share personal data such as your phone number, email, address, or personal photos online.
- Before you write, think. Anything you say online is attached to your profile, so don't post something you wouldn't want a teacher, a classmate, a family member, or a future employer to see.
- Understand that their online actions in real life will have consequences.
- Take some time on Facebook and other online sites to go through the privacy settings.
- Don't password for sharing.
- Without parental approval, don't meet someone you've befriended online.
- Without headphones, let them watch so that you can listen in.
- From time to time, check their video history.
- When it comes to dubious material, consider the latest patterns (more on this later).
- Encourage them to watch kid-friendly channels that you know.
- Block the types and producers of particular content. You can block it if there is a particular channel you are aware of or a genre of content.
- Enable only authorized content. Through approving unique content, parents may also control what their kids watch. Just this content and nothing else would be possible for children to watch.
- Turn off the hunt. You can turn off the search feature on YouTube. For parents of children who are capable of reading and writing, this is a great choice.
- Using limitations on YouTube Kids. This is a popular option for parents who want a kid-friendly version of YouTube. Although it does not block anything, a lot of the adult content is eliminated.
- Ask your kid, along with you, to open Snapchat messages.
- Go to the settings of the app and ensure that messages can be received only from friends rather than strangers.
