How to Empower your children to be safe when online

My children are  both very nifty with the ipad and our phones. We don't allow full access to it, but on 'reward days', or days when we are both not around and want to 'facetime' them, they are allowed some time on these gadgets but I monitor or get whoever is looking after them, to make sure they're not surfing nonsense.



Iman is 3 and Isobel has turned 7.


I am more concerned with Isobel as she knows how to read, spell and write, so although I trust her when she surfs, I am still on the look out and have made her implemented parental control over her computer (my old iMac).

I came across this newsletter from UNICEF and I thought I'd like to share with you as a guideline. Will just give a summary of it and you can visit www.klikdenganbijak.my for more online safety tips ok?

1. Digital Habits

Get to know your children's online habits. How much time do they spend online and how do they spend it? Isobel loves her minecraft and although I was assured it's not violent, she seems quite addicted to it and addiction is never good, right?

Are they having trouble in other areas because their digital activities are taking up too much time?
(I finally had to take the ipad and allow access during "reward day" or after homework is cleared, otherwise, she won't even think of putting it down unless she needs to charge it!!! *alarm bells*)

What are their favourite sites and apps and who are they talking to?

2. Online Persona

Remind your chidren to think before posting. Are they proud of what they're posting? Would they want their post to represent them indefinitely?
(Note to parents with teens: selfies showing body parts seems to be the craze now)

They should check photos and posts they're tagged in and untag themselves from posts that are offensive or illegal

3. Bullying and Hateful Speech

Let your children know they can come to you for help on these issues, and check in with them about this regularly. If you child is being cyber bullied, depending on the severity, they may want to delete or unsubscribe the offender.

Reporting the behavior to the site administrators is another option.
( I was did that. Report inappropriate comments and fake accounts pretending to be me)

4. Personal Information & Privacy

Personal information such as full name, phone number, address and birthday should not be revealed in any public site. Social network privac settings should be set to "Friends".
(I also tell her don't simply add/follow strangers on her Instagram)

5. Image and Video Sharing

For safety purposes, your child should remove the metadata from their posts so that strangers cannot access their information. One way is to switch 'location' off on their phone or camera.


(Adults can do this too!)

Hope this helps ?

Love,

Daphne

Guidelines from UNICEF Newsletter
Pictures from the wonderful WWW.

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