If your children are going to be on the online world, you need to make sure that they are safe. While they might not fully appreciate how dangerous the internet can be, you do, and as the parent it’s up to you to make sure that you’re setting rules for them.
While they may be hard to enforce at first, we promise that it will get easier over time. But, if you’re not sure where to start with this, we’re here to help. Down below, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the different rules that you should have for your kids online, so keep reading if you would like to find out more.
Privacy Settings Must Be On
The first thing that we’re going to say is that you should be ensuring they have their privacy settings on at all times. If they have social media, they need to make sure that their profile is locked down on all fronts for anyone who is not a friend of theirs.
Friends can request to add or follow, but the profile should certainly not be public. You don’t know who is online, who is looking at any given point, and they need to be protected from the weirdos who are out there online. You should also be checking this regularly to ensure this is being abided by.
Teaching Them About Healthy Usage
It’s also important that you are teaching your children about healthy use of the internet. They should not be online all of the time, as there is simply no need for this. Statistically, kids who are online often develop a dependency on social media and the internet, something that the world does not need more of.
We know that with so much online these days kids want to be on their tablet, phone, or computer, but they don’t need unlimited access. Ideally, they should have a set amount of time that they can be online within a day, to ensure that they’re still connected with the real world. They won’t like this, and they’re going to tell you that it’s mean or that other kids don’t have this, but that’s irrelevant.
Of course, using this for homework or research is different.
Not To Use Their Real Phone Number
Finally, tell them not to use their real phone number when they’re signing up to social media. You can get a temporary phone number for them to complete the online SMS verification to sign up, and this way they cannot be found through their phone number. This keeps them a little extra safe, and as such is an important thing to do.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the different rules that you should have for your kids if they’re online. It might seem harsh, but protection and safety is one of the most important things that you can do for your kids at this point with the way the world is online.
