Quick Tips to Keep Your Child Safe Online

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When I work with parents, I am often asked for some ‘quick tips’ for improving children’s safety online. Take a minute to share these suggestions with your children. You might feel like you have talked to them about these previously, but you can never have the discussion around online safety enough.

General Tips

  • Create unique and strong passwords that do not use first and/or last names.
  • Change a password after logging on to a device that is not your own.
  • Never give out personal information online.
  • Never share passwords with anyone other than your parents.
  • Make sure Location Services is ‘Off’ for the camera on all devices that are able to take pictures.

For more details and explanation of these tips, read this earlier blog on basic tips for online safety.

Social Media

  • Have your the username and password for all your child’s social media accounts.
  • Only allow your child to go on sites that have privacy settings.
  • All accounts should be set to ‘Private’.
  • Avoid social media sites that allow users to post anonymous questions or comments.
  • Most importantly, understand what social media sites your child is using. Understand what the age limits are and what risks are associated with the social network.

Online Gaming

  • Understand the games that your child is playing. What are the age limits? How much violence is there? Is there sexual content?
  • Avoid the use of head sets.
  • Keep gaming devices in common areas of the home.
  • Set gaming time limits.
  • Set a gaming curfew if your child is gaming online.
  • Use the parental controls on gaming consoles to control content, access to the Internet, and timers. Click here for more details on setting parental controls on Xbox 360.