As the oldest of eight, and the family geek I’ve been through the spiel… From installing filters to blocking IP’s I’ve helped my family navigate the dangerous waters the internet can be. Most of my siblings are much younger than me and are still under close watch while using the internet. Time restraints, blocked IP’s, and Parental Controls are still a big part of their lives.
With social networking sites accepting children as young as 13 and some parents allowing their children to lie about their age on Facebook, it’s increasingly important for parents to put safety measures in place. Kids don’t use good judgment on how much personal info to share and there are plenty of weirdos out there just waiting to find them.
If your computer doesn’t have parental controls in place I highly recommend you get some. Now. Net Nanny or Web Watcher are good. You can also change the settings in your wireless router to allow only certain computers in your house to connect to the internet, setting times for connectivity, blocking IP addresses, etc. The best line of defense however is having a good relationship with your kids, one where you trust each other, then talking to them about cybersafety.
At what age do you allow your children to be online? Do you restrict their internet usage? If so, how?
My stepdaughter and I have had many discussions about safety online, but I find those conversations go beyond just internet safety and cross into dating and relationship safety.
She's not one to seek adult content, I worry more about the inadvertent sharing of sensitive topics. I see so many people saying how much they hate their job or they can't wait for 5pm, those things that can get a person into trouble.
I know that it will be inevitable that my son will surf the internet when he learns how to. But I will make it a habit to guide him always and restrict his access to certain sites. Times may have changed but it is always up to the parents to look up to the welfare of their children, especially online.
My son is only three years old but I have definitely begun to think about this. Even though he doesn't use the computer, he still watches cartoons in english on the internet from time to time using our home pc, iPod and my iPhone. (Since we live in Sweden, I try to encourage anything and everything that helps with his english) It's not long before he figures out how to maneuver around the sites.
Thanks for the recommendations to Net Nanny and Web Watcher. I'll check them out!
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How fun that your child can watch shows in English! We are big fans of Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine, and anything from Fisher Price Little People. Of course my son is only 3, but he does learn things from these shows.
Do you all have a service like Netflix? We just got a Wii console and we can watch Netflix streaming movies on our TV with a special channel for the Wii. I'm finding tons of great kids shows!
You are so right. Parents these days seem to leave the raising of their children to school teachers and caregivers and seldom even pay attention to what their children are learning, good or bad. It's always great to see another parent who looks out for their kid and believes in actually guiding/restricting as need be instead of just letting the kid raise himself!
If it's on the internet it's search-able, findable, and PUBLIC. I do not trust security settings from places like Google and Facebook. To me, if you post it online, consider it public information.
This is especially hard with kids. To keep them safe we have to teach them what they can and cannot post. Even if my daughter was 16 I wouldn't want her posting that she was home alone for the weekend… Heck, I don't post that kind of thing.
And you're so right about the job thing. You have no idea how many people I've heard of who've recently lost their jobs due to them complaining on Twitter or Facebook.
My son loves Bob and Thomas as well! My problem is finding kids programming in English. Right now, I have several dozen dvd's from the States since all the cartoons channels available from our cable service are in Swedish.
Thanks for the recommendation. Netflix is available here, I just have to look into it a bit.