The Internet and Mobile Phones Parental Controls
The teenagers, tweens, and school-age children of today are becoming more and more technologically advanced, most often outpacing what their parents know about these high-tech devices.
While for some children that literally means they are learning computer languages, building websites, and even building robots, most others simply use the technology of today to watch videos on YouTube, play MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) or send text messages.
Unfortunately, if they're not supervised, many of the things your children can do online and with their mobile phones can lead to a lot of trouble. New technologies will lead to new issues, from viewing porn and other inappropriate videos and websites, to sexting (sending inappropriate text messages or photographs) and chatting with predators.
Mobile phones and the internet have also resulted in new ways to threaten children: cyberbullying. That doesn't have to mean that you can't have a computer or mobile phone for your children, but when they use the new high-tech technology, you should think about Parental Controls that can help protect them.
Parental Controls
Parental controls can include built-in software for parental control, software for controlling add-ons, software for filtering web content, and internet blockers. Typically, these may be set up to restrict access to a device or to particular websites.
One major issue with parental controls is that many parents just care about setting them up on their home computers, where they know their children would have internet access, but they neglect all the other devices that also provide internet access in and around their home.
While we do not live in an age where internet access is accessible to everyone in the refrigerator (some already do though), several other devices will link your child to the internet, such as:
- iPad for
- iPhone and other handheld computers
- Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, respectively (via WiFi)
- Wii and Wii U by Nintendo
- Playstation 4 from Sony
- PSP from Sony (via WiFi)
- XBox
That can be enjoyable, giving kids access to video games and online multiplayer gaming, but it also allows them to interact with others, and a web browser is included in many. While there are parental controls available for most of these devices, it is not likely that the average parent who does not use the system itself would think about turning those controls on.
Be sure you know how to toggle on any available parental controls before getting one of these gadgets that is internet-ready or hooking up an internet-ready gaming system to your home network.
Parental Controls of the Internet
In the latest versions of Mac OS and Windows, parental control software is installed, but can also be purchased as separate programs, which also provide more features and more flexibility.
Programs such as Bsafe Online, Net Nanny, and Safe Eyes include these. Other things you can do to keep your children safe online, in addition to this form of parental control program, include:
Putting password protection on the device so that when they want to access the internet, you have to log your kids on.
Using parental control software to limit device and internet access to times when a parent is home and about to track what your children are doing
Limit access to times when a parent is home to track or use your router to set up unique internet application and gaming access to various computers or internet-ready gaming systems
If your child uses a social networking site such as Facebook and restricts their list of friends to people they know, set strict privacy settings.
Put the machine and other gadgets in a common area of the house so that you can track what your children are doing directly.
Ask your internet service provider (ISP) about automated filtering that may be open to you
Reviewing what kind of internet access your children would have when they visit friends and family members
Be aware that children can cover their tracks by clearing private data from the internet browser they are using, including browsing history, cache, and cookies, without parental controls.
In addition to general alerts regarding shielding children from the internet, parents should be conscious of some particular things that may cause problems, including:
Illegal file-sharing services: Children illegally download music, movies and other material through specific programs and pages, such as Gnutella, Bit Torrent, and Kazaa, etc.
Social network sites: These social network sites, such as Twitter and Instagram, are used by many children to share personal details and images that can be used by predators to reach your child.
In addition to texting on their mobile phones, many children use instant messaging (including Kik and other apps) and chat rooms (such as iChat, Yahoo Messenger) to speak to their peers and, sadly, predators who pose as children often. An particularly big problem in MMORPGs, where many players are in their 20s and 30s, can be inappropriate chats.
Video chat: Children have also started using video chat rooms, including the popular Chatroulette, which matches users to chat with strangers while on their webcams and is claimed to involve several individuals engaged in inappropriate behaviors.
Web videos: Children on the internet typically find YouTube easily. Unfortunately, on YouTube and other video pages, there are plenty of videos that are not suitable for children.
Parental Regulation for Mobile Phones
While much of the focus on internet dangers has been on computers, few parents seem to know that when it comes to the kind of access they have to the internet, many of today's mobile phones are actually mini-computers. Take the iPhone, for example, which contains an email application, a web browser, and a YouTube video viewing application.
It can also be used by kids to send text messages, take and send images to each other, and chat, of course. So, how do you track and protect your children when they use a smartphone, particularly when the internet is accessible?
The first thing you can do is learn how to turn on the mobile phone and use whatever parental controls are included, but they may be minimal.
This may include applications for parental control that is currently part of the mobile phone and those that can be incorporated as cell phone carrier features. For example, AT&T provides the Safe Family app that allows you to limit when a phone can be used, block or allow those numbers that can be sent/received by your child to and from calls and text messages, and limit inappropriate content.
Similar services are provided by Verizon, T-Mobile (Family Allowances and Web Guard), and other cell phone carriers. If they have a supported smartphone, several mobile phone providers also have programs that help you locate your child at any time.
The Verizon Family Locator service (formerly called Chaperone), for instance, would allow you to view the location of your child and will even give you a text message when they arrive or leave a certain location, such as school or the house of a friend. Similar services are provided by AT&T and Sprint (Sprint Family Locator).
Did you know you can also monitor your teen's text messages? Although you can secretly install mobile spy software on your child's iPhone or Windows Mobile-based smartphones that monitor text messages and phone calls, cell phone providers do not themselves offer this service, regardless of what some parents might report.
However, spying on your kids is very rarely a smart idea, and if you use this form of app, you can really let your teen know that as a condition of using the phone, you may be reading any of their texts or emails.
If you don't trust your child to use their phone, then you can either not have a phone, turn off the internet connectivity or the ability of the mobile phone to send text messages, or get them a simple phone that doesn't have these kinds of features before they gain your trust.
Is your child ready to get her own mobile phone?
Best Controls for Parenting
Unfortunately, you do not always know what your children have access to when they are not at home, no matter how secure you have your home computer, cell phones, and other devices that can access the internet.
So, the Best Controls for Parenting are an active parent that teaches their kids healthy electronic use, talks about the dangers of new technologies, and is aware of what they are doing. Before getting your kids a smartphone that allows them to send and receive email, text, or gives them access to the internet, you take the following steps:
Speak to them about things that may get them into trouble in an age-appropriate way, including a discussion about the implications of sexting, visiting inappropriate websites, images, and videos, and the possibility that people with whom they talk online might not be who they appear, and then continue to have discussions about these issues and ask your children questions about what they do online from time to time
Set up your parental controls, but then continue to supervise your children when they use their mobile phones and computers, particularly younger children.
Remind your children not to believe anything they see or hear, which is not true for certain things they see on the internet.
If they see something confusing or that just doesn't seem right, advise them to speak with you.
Teach your children not to share too much personal information about themselves or their online https://teachmixer.com/coloring-pages/activities/ activities, including sites such as Instagram, as this data would rarely remain private.
Make them use screen names that do not include their actual name, email address, age or other information that distinguishes them.
Alert them to send hurtful text messages or emails about cyberbullying, threatening others online, spreading rumors, or impersonating other children.
Enable your children to only use websites and games that are age-appropriate. For example, Facebook allows children to register to be at least 13 years old, and many of the popular games young children like to play that allow internet access are rated "T" for "Teen" or "M" for "Mature" and can only be played by adults.
Encourage RL (real life) activities and limit screen time to no more than one or two hours a day (which can include watching TV, using a computer, playing video games, or using an iPod, mobile phone, or other media device), as internet activities can be very addictive.
10 Electronic Use Rules For Your Teen
While for some children that literally means they are learning computer languages, building websites, and even building robots, most others simply use the technology of today to watch videos on YouTube, play MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games) or send text messages.
Unfortunately, if they're not supervised, many of the things your children can do online and with their mobile phones can lead to a lot of trouble. New technologies will lead to new issues, from viewing porn and other inappropriate videos and websites, to sexting (sending inappropriate text messages or photographs) and chatting with predators.
Mobile phones and the internet have also resulted in new ways to threaten children: cyberbullying. That doesn't have to mean that you can't have a computer or mobile phone for your children, but when they use the new high-tech technology, you should think about Parental Controls that can help protect them.
Parental Controls
Parental controls can include built-in software for parental control, software for controlling add-ons, software for filtering web content, and internet blockers. Typically, these may be set up to restrict access to a device or to particular websites.
One major issue with parental controls is that many parents just care about setting them up on their home computers, where they know their children would have internet access, but they neglect all the other devices that also provide internet access in and around their home.
While we do not live in an age where internet access is accessible to everyone in the refrigerator (some already do though), several other devices will link your child to the internet, such as:
- iPad for
- iPhone and other handheld computers
- Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DS, respectively (via WiFi)
- Wii and Wii U by Nintendo
- Playstation 4 from Sony
- PSP from Sony (via WiFi)
- XBox
That can be enjoyable, giving kids access to video games and online multiplayer gaming, but it also allows them to interact with others, and a web browser is included in many. While there are parental controls available for most of these devices, it is not likely that the average parent who does not use the system itself would think about turning those controls on.
Be sure you know how to toggle on any available parental controls before getting one of these gadgets that is internet-ready or hooking up an internet-ready gaming system to your home network.
Parental Controls of the Internet
In the latest versions of Mac OS and Windows, parental control software is installed, but can also be purchased as separate programs, which also provide more features and more flexibility.
Programs such as Bsafe Online, Net Nanny, and Safe Eyes include these. Other things you can do to keep your children safe online, in addition to this form of parental control program, include:
Putting password protection on the device so that when they want to access the internet, you have to log your kids on.
Using parental control software to limit device and internet access to times when a parent is home and about to track what your children are doing
Limit access to times when a parent is home to track or use your router to set up unique internet application and gaming access to various computers or internet-ready gaming systems
If your child uses a social networking site such as Facebook and restricts their list of friends to people they know, set strict privacy settings.
Put the machine and other gadgets in a common area of the house so that you can track what your children are doing directly.
Ask your internet service provider (ISP) about automated filtering that may be open to you
Reviewing what kind of internet access your children would have when they visit friends and family members
Be aware that children can cover their tracks by clearing private data from the internet browser they are using, including browsing history, cache, and cookies, without parental controls.
In addition to general alerts regarding shielding children from the internet, parents should be conscious of some particular things that may cause problems, including:
Illegal file-sharing services: Children illegally download music, movies and other material through specific programs and pages, such as Gnutella, Bit Torrent, and Kazaa, etc.
Social network sites: These social network sites, such as Twitter and Instagram, are used by many children to share personal details and images that can be used by predators to reach your child.
In addition to texting on their mobile phones, many children use instant messaging (including Kik and other apps) and chat rooms (such as iChat, Yahoo Messenger) to speak to their peers and, sadly, predators who pose as children often. An particularly big problem in MMORPGs, where many players are in their 20s and 30s, can be inappropriate chats.
Video chat: Children have also started using video chat rooms, including the popular Chatroulette, which matches users to chat with strangers while on their webcams and is claimed to involve several individuals engaged in inappropriate behaviors.
Web videos: Children on the internet typically find YouTube easily. Unfortunately, on YouTube and other video pages, there are plenty of videos that are not suitable for children.
Parental Regulation for Mobile Phones
While much of the focus on internet dangers has been on computers, few parents seem to know that when it comes to the kind of access they have to the internet, many of today's mobile phones are actually mini-computers. Take the iPhone, for example, which contains an email application, a web browser, and a YouTube video viewing application.
It can also be used by kids to send text messages, take and send images to each other, and chat, of course. So, how do you track and protect your children when they use a smartphone, particularly when the internet is accessible?
The first thing you can do is learn how to turn on the mobile phone and use whatever parental controls are included, but they may be minimal.
This may include applications for parental control that is currently part of the mobile phone and those that can be incorporated as cell phone carrier features. For example, AT&T provides the Safe Family app that allows you to limit when a phone can be used, block or allow those numbers that can be sent/received by your child to and from calls and text messages, and limit inappropriate content.
Similar services are provided by Verizon, T-Mobile (Family Allowances and Web Guard), and other cell phone carriers. If they have a supported smartphone, several mobile phone providers also have programs that help you locate your child at any time.
The Verizon Family Locator service (formerly called Chaperone), for instance, would allow you to view the location of your child and will even give you a text message when they arrive or leave a certain location, such as school or the house of a friend. Similar services are provided by AT&T and Sprint (Sprint Family Locator).
Did you know you can also monitor your teen's text messages? Although you can secretly install mobile spy software on your child's iPhone or Windows Mobile-based smartphones that monitor text messages and phone calls, cell phone providers do not themselves offer this service, regardless of what some parents might report.
However, spying on your kids is very rarely a smart idea, and if you use this form of app, you can really let your teen know that as a condition of using the phone, you may be reading any of their texts or emails.
If you don't trust your child to use their phone, then you can either not have a phone, turn off the internet connectivity or the ability of the mobile phone to send text messages, or get them a simple phone that doesn't have these kinds of features before they gain your trust.
Is your child ready to get her own mobile phone?
Best Controls for Parenting
Unfortunately, you do not always know what your children have access to when they are not at home, no matter how secure you have your home computer, cell phones, and other devices that can access the internet.
So, the Best Controls for Parenting are an active parent that teaches their kids healthy electronic use, talks about the dangers of new technologies, and is aware of what they are doing. Before getting your kids a smartphone that allows them to send and receive email, text, or gives them access to the internet, you take the following steps:
Speak to them about things that may get them into trouble in an age-appropriate way, including a discussion about the implications of sexting, visiting inappropriate websites, images, and videos, and the possibility that people with whom they talk online might not be who they appear, and then continue to have discussions about these issues and ask your children questions about what they do online from time to time
Set up your parental controls, but then continue to supervise your children when they use their mobile phones and computers, particularly younger children.
Remind your children not to believe anything they see or hear, which is not true for certain things they see on the internet.
If they see something confusing or that just doesn't seem right, advise them to speak with you.
Teach your children not to share too much personal information about themselves or their online https://teachmixer.com/coloring-pages/activities/ activities, including sites such as Instagram, as this data would rarely remain private.
Make them use screen names that do not include their actual name, email address, age or other information that distinguishes them.
Alert them to send hurtful text messages or emails about cyberbullying, threatening others online, spreading rumors, or impersonating other children.
Enable your children to only use websites and games that are age-appropriate. For example, Facebook allows children to register to be at least 13 years old, and many of the popular games young children like to play that allow internet access are rated "T" for "Teen" or "M" for "Mature" and can only be played by adults.
Encourage RL (real life) activities and limit screen time to no more than one or two hours a day (which can include watching TV, using a computer, playing video games, or using an iPod, mobile phone, or other media device), as internet activities can be very addictive.
10 Electronic Use Rules For Your Teen
Comments
Post a Comment