The internet is awesome. But it’s also home to myriad social and digital dangers for children. It’s a parenting minefield. As a dad, if you’re not actively involved in how your kids use the web, you’re exposing your children, your family and everything you store on your computer to risks.
Take pornography, for instance. The way kids used to find out about porn was the black market schoolyard trading of video tapes and DVDs. Now, it’s online. And it’s everywhere. Children are curious. They’re hormonal. They’ll find it.
Think your kids are too young to be interested in porn? Think again. A survey of 19,000 parents worldwide has revealed that some kids start watching porn as early as six, and begin flirting online at eight.
Obviously, watching pornography at an early age can give kids a completely distorted idea of how real-world relationships and sex works. But it can also open the floodgates for a torrent of viruses to infect your computer and wreck your family’s home life.
Porn’s hidden dangers
Compared to ‘regular’ websites, many porn domains contain lots of malware—malicious software that downloads and allows hackers access and even control of your computer. On porn sites, this malware is often hidden in adverts promoting gambling, pharmaceutical products or other porn sites, and is known as ‘malvertising’.
Your teenage son or daughter might have more sense than to click on these kind of ads on their own laptop or tablet, but younger kids? Using the family laptop? They’re far more likely to click, click, click away on bright, flashing ad boxes, unaware they’re downloading a world of pain for your hard drive.
Porn sites live in the ‘bad neighbourhoods’ of the internet. And you wouldn’t let your kids wander around a red light district on their own. So why treat the digital world any differently?
Avoiding bad neighbourhoods
How do you protect your kids from these areas of the internet? Start by making sure your kids are always supervised when they use the family laptop, computer or tablet. Don’t let them explore the web alone. You could create a password, so only you can give them access to the internet at home.
When you do allow your kids online, make sure your parental settings are tight; filter the explicit results, and lock the SafeSearch. Google even has a search engine for kids, which you could save as your homepage.
You might also want to learn how to disable the your browser’s version of private browsing too. Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox all have incognito-style versions that allow you to search the web without recording your history or saving cookies. Which is great for adults, but problematic for monitoring kids’ online activity.
It’s basically impossible to ‘switch off’ this function on your computer. So if you decide to pull the plug on private browsing, you should download some software like Incognito Gone which disables it. But be careful, though – it’s very hard to get private browsing back once you remove it.
Engaging your kids
The best place to start is by talking to your son or daughter, as early as possible. If they’re doing something they shouldn’t, find out why. If they’re ignorant as to why their behaviour is dangerous, explain it to them.
Eventually, your kids will grow up and use the web independently. You won’t be around or how any control of what they’re doing online. But you can take steps to safeguard them right now, and educate them about staying safer and more secure on the internet.
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There are plenty of other dangers not mentioned in this article. For more information on teaching kids about web safety and protecting your family online, be sure to check out GetNetWise and StaySafeOnline.
—image from greyweed/Flickr
….. Now that I think about it. I’m treading in dangerous waters with what I said. What does the government think of a parents monitoring their kids. Kids have rights, parents rights are being cut down. That child can go and buy a morning after pill, so why shouldn’t they be able to do what they want with their phone or computer?
Good gosh I was lucky in that when my kids were in HS, I was the only one that had a cell phone (a brick) which was primarily for business. Back then, AOL had great monitoring tools that I was easily informed when either of my kids were abusing the “privilege” of using the internet. The internet was pass protected. My wife and I had the pass word and would log them on. In the event they abused the privilege, they lost the use of the internet. The only reason I could see a kid having a cell phone is… Read more »