With almost every gadget in the house able to access the internet these days, it can feel like a losing battle trying to keep the family safe online. Here’re our top tips for making sure they stay safe while surfing the net.
Make Sure Your Connection is Secure
First things first, it’s important to make sure only your family have access to your WiFi. It might seem harmless letting the neighbour piggyback on your connection, but if they can access it so can others. And these intruders are after more than just your bandwidth. An unsecure network can disclose passwords and infect your system with malware. Make sure your wireless encryption is enabled and use a strong password to protect your WiFi.
Browse Safely
It’s the one thing we all know how to do well, browsing the internet. Unfortunately, there’s more than a few enterprising types willing to capitalise on that skill. From fake websites nestled amongst search results to tricks to encourage you to give up personal information, there are a variety of cons out there waiting to catch you. Fool the crooks and make sure your system works quickly, and your family are protected, by investing in anti-malware software. Check out the Spyhunter 4 review for more details.
Show Them How It’s Done
It’s never too early to introduce your little monkeys to the intricacies of the web. Read privacy policies carefully and make sure they know not to just agree to things online. Teach them not to use their full names in social media profiles and make sure they know never to list their addresses or birthdays on these sites. If they are loading pictures online, make sure they don’t include any recognisable landmarks or street names and ensure your kids know that these are not allowed.
Make Them Aware
It can be tempting to protect our children’s innocence, prolonging their childhoods and shield them from the world. Unfortunately, this can leave them vulnerable. In today’s world, they can access the internet as easily outside the home as in it. This means it is important they are aware of online harassment, bullies and even predators. You can’t monitor their activity every waking minute and leaving them ignorant could mean they don’t recognise when they’re in danger.
Let Them Go Live
Many parents are jumpy at the idea of letting their kids play live online games with complete strangers all over the world. This is understandable, but we all know that preventing children from doing something only encourages them to try to harder. For this reason, it is important not to prevent them playing live games online, they will be able to access them just as easily at friend’s houses.
All the popular consoles and games come with parental controls that do not hinder the gaming experience, so they never need to know they’re enabled. Making sure your children know not to share their real names, locations or ages over such games also goes a long way towards ensuring they stay safe.
