Keeping Your Children Safe Online

Parenting is always challenging. Yet, with the proliferation of technology and digital media, an additional challenge has arisen for parents: managing screen time. Ten years ago, a parent never had to contemplate at what age to get their kid a smartphone or tablet, much less which apps they should allow their kids to use, but today it is perhaps one of the most difficult parenting questions to answer.

Social media, and other major technology companies, now dominate our daily lives. After more than a decade of uninhibited growth, social media companies and other major technology corporations have recently come under intense scrutiny. These social media platforms brought incredible positive changes, but their adverse and coercive effects on daily life were underreported and underappreciated for too long. 

As recent news coverage has shown, it’s not just parents, but the entire world that is reckoning with how these companies dominate everything from our morning news to our evening entertainment and everything in between. While Congressional hearings in Washington may lead to changes in how social media and technology companies operate, parents do not have the luxury of waiting on legislative action. It is our responsibility to keep our children safe, and there are several concrete steps that parents can take today to keep their children safe online.

First, make sure to discuss internet safety and develop an online safety plan with your children before they engage in online activity. This includes establishing clear guidelines, teaching children to spot red flags, and encouraging them to have open communication with you. Maintaining open communication is key.

Next, parents need to supervise young children’s internet use, including periodically checking their profiles and posts. Require your children to use and store electronic devices in open and common areas of the home and consider setting time limits for their use.

A recent study published by the Pew Research Center reported that 71% of parents with a child under 12 said they are concerned their child might spend too much time in front of screens. However, this study also revealed that 84% of those same parents were confident in knowing how much screen time is appropriate for their child. This means most parents know what too much screen time is; they just need to be more consistent and confident in enforcing a time restriction that works for them and their family.

Parents also need to review games, apps, and social media sites before they are downloaded or used by children. Parents should also adjust the privacy settings and use parental controls when available, including electronic devices. These enhanced protections can not only limit what your child can do on their devices or their accounts, but also alert you to their activity and help keep parents informed of their child’s actions online.

Regrettably, there are real threats that exist to children online. Online safety includes teaching your children about body safety and boundaries, including the importance of saying ‘no’ to inappropriate requests both in the physical world and the virtual world. You also want to tell your children to avoid sharing personal information, photos, and videos online in public forums or with people they do not know in real life. Explain to your children that images posted online will be permanently on the internet. It’s important to pay particular attention to apps and sites that feature end-to-end encryption, direct messaging, video chats, file uploads, and user anonymity, which are frequently relied upon by online child predators.

Parents need to be alert to potential signs of abuse, including changes in children’s use of electronic devices, attempts to conceal online activity, withdrawn behavior, angry outbursts, anxiety, and depression. This can also include spending long hours online (especially at night), phone calls from people you don’t know, unsolicited gifts arriving in the mail, your child suddenly turning off the device when you walk into the room, or withdrawal for family life and reluctance to discuss online activities.

While there are many things for parents to be concerned about with getting their child online, there are also immeasurable benefits. And given our society is only likely to become more dependent upon the internet and technology, it will be essential for kids to gain extensive familiarity with it. However, just like with everything else, it is important to practice moderation. A parent’s first step to moderation with the internet is to use their best parenting tool: open communication with your child.