Parents are more worried about keeping their children safe online than they are about bullying in school, according to a new survey
A recent poll, carried out by Tesco Mobile, undertaken by 800 mums and dads of kids between eight and 16 showed that 65% rank online safety as their main worry, even ahead of bullying.
Despite this, 25% of those parents said they will be giving their children phones at the start of this term, but remain fearful about what trouble this could bring on.
While traditional bullying in schools remains a fear, it is online trolling and exposure to inappropriate content that is becoming more of an issue in modern society.
Other worries mentioned were online scans, viral social media challenges that can be dangerous and online predators – all are among the biggest worries for parents.
While these are things that many of you parents or guardians reading this can relate to, we have some top safety tips for you to follow, to ensure your child or teen remain safe online.
The experts at Proxyrack have shared their five top tips to help bolster online security for your little ones and teens.
1 – Keep track of their time online
The use of devices to entertain and inform children is becoming increasingly common and hard to avoid, especially given the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on daily life and learning.
For example, limit screen time to one hour a day for 2-5 year-olds to avoid the likelihood of behavioural problems and irregular sleep patterns.
2 – Set rules and boundaries
Your kids may not have personal mobile phones yet, so the use of family devices such as ipads is quite common.
If the online source is used by all the family, make sure you are sharing it fairly and have agreed times, monitoring screen time, as well as utilising tools to monitor and manage usage.
3 – Manage parental and privacy controls
It is vital that you log out of your own online accounts when letting the kids loose online.
Furthermore, if any concerns arise about what your kids may be accessing, then check the privacy settings on websites/social media and adjust parental controls where necessary.
4 – Be open to talk about online safety with them
Some topics can be taboo, but it is vital to build these conversations little and often. Enquire as to what your kids watch/browse online and who their online friends are and try and inform yourself by asking other parents their approach.
However you choose to broach these conversations, make sure to share these rules with other caregivers and family members.
5 – Make sure you know who their online friends are
The age in which some children take to social media is getting ever younger, and it is important that you make your kids aware of the dangers of strangers online through messages, games, and social networking.
Make clear who they can add or talk to and show them how they can act to block or report someone.
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