Whether we like it or not, technology is a HUGE part of our children’s lives. They use it daily, and older kids use the internet at school quite often, too. Keeping kids safe online is SO important these days, and it can be kind of tricky to do so. Cell phones make it impossible for parents to always be there to monitor what is happening on the internet, so we must set some rules and guidelines that our children should be trusted to follow. Now, we can set these rules and guidelines and hope for the best, but we all know that kids sometimes make mistakes or need reminders.

I have a 14-year-old and a 10-year-old… two kids who use the internet on a daily basis. The 10-year-old plays games online with his Playstation and Xbox, and he uses YouTube. The 14-year-old uses so many social media apps and has accounts on them all. She is obviously harder to keep up with online, but we make sure to put in the effort in order to protect her. Like I said before, with all of the scary things happening in our world today, stemming from situations online, it is more important than ever to think about keeping kids safe online.

Your teenagers may think you are being mean when you check up on them to see what they are doing, but when they are older they’ll understand you were only looking out for them. It is SO important to protect our kids from the dangers of the internet. We have all heard the horror stories, and we always think it won’t happen to our children, but we never know.

8 Tips For Keeping Kids Safe Online

1. 1. Create a contract for your kids to sign about internet use. Set ground rules and include punishments so that your kids know ahead of time what will happen if they break the rules. In this contract include a section about creating new accounts. You should be helping your child, no matter what age, create accounts. You should have the passwords and email addresses associated with each one. This shows them that you expect them to ask permission before doing anything online, or they will have their internet privileges revoked.
   2. Keep electronics out of bedrooms an hour before bedtime. This should go for you too, parents! Set the example. This allows you to better monitor your child’s online activities. During the day you are more likely to pop in and check on what they’re doing… later at night, us parents are relaxing after a long day or maybe even sleeping. Our kids know this is our routine, so they’re more likely to break the rules at those times. Not only can it potentially help with keeping kids safe online, it will help them sleep better if their phone isn’t right at their fingertips.**Side note- If your kids are younger it might even be better to keep electronics out of bedrooms completely.**
   3. Understand their internet use. If you are serious about keeping kids safe online you have to become familiar with what your kids using on the internet. Are they using SnapChat? You need to use SnapChat, too, or at least know how it works and how to navigate it. Same with Instagram, Music.ly, and any other social media app that they use. If you understand how it works you will have a better chance of noticing red flags. It’ll be easier for you to monitor their usage, as well, if you know what all the apps do. For your younger kids, you obviously don’t have to understand all the latest social media apps. Instead, you will have to understand the websites they choose to use. We know things like ABC Mouse are safe, but there are gaming websites that do have chat rooms. Not only that, but there are (of course) ads on websites that your child may click on, even accidentally, that could lead to inappropriate or unsafe content. Determine which websites are okay for your child to navigate while you’re not in the room, and make it clear that other websites require your presence.
   4. Teach them to never share information. We assume that our kids know to not give out personal information, but they should be reminded about the dangers of it. They shouldn’t give their full name, phone number, e-mail address, or school name. Any other personal information should be avoided, as well. Every little detail that our kids give out on the internet makes them that much easier to track down. A huge one… they should be told to NEVER SHARE THEIR LOCATION. On SnapChat there is an option to share your exact location at all times… it might be smart to put in their contract that they should not be sharing their location. Even if your child has an online friend (I know some parents allow this), encourage them to avoid giving this personal information. They may feel like they can trust their friend, but you never know who is really on the other side of that screen. Make sure they know that they are never to meet up with someone they met online. Show your older kids horror stories if you have to… just get the point across. Even a couple episodes of Catfish might make them understand that not everyone is who they say they are. When our 10-year-old plays video games online he is able to talk to complete strangers that he is playing the game with. I’m not always comfortable with this, so I listen in quite often. He has to have his bedroom door open when he is playing online in his room, or he has to sit in the living room. I have told him over and over again to never tell anyone his full name, what city he lives in, or what school he goes to. Keeping kids safe online even extends to video games these days, so you may need to think about the location of the video game system in your own home.
   5. Encourage them to tell you everything and promise not to over-react. Our kids may avoid telling us about things that happen online because they are scared we will be angry or over-react. They need to know that they can trust us to help them handle the situation without freaking out. If they are being harassed online or if they get themselves into a scary situation they need to feel comfortable coming to us with that information. We can only protect our children if they trust us, so make sure to hold up your promise here.
   6. Set parental controls. You can set parental controls on many websites now. YouTube and Google both have parental controls, and setting these controls can prevent inappropriate content from showing up in a search. You can check individual websites or you can go into the browser settings and put parental controls on there.A program called Qustodio allows you to set controls and monitor what your child is doing online. This program can be used on three different devices, including iPhones and Androids. It is kind of perfect because there aren’t many programs parents can run on our kids’ cell phones. Plus, the program is easy to use.
   7. Check history. I cannot stress the importance of this enough! Even if you trust your child, you should be checking in on them. Our children are just that… CHILDREN. Kids make mistakes and they rely on our guidance to correct those mistakes. If we are blind to their mistakes, we can’t fix them, which just allows that negative behavior to continue. For younger kids, they may not know that a website was inappropriate or dangerous. Finding the mistakes ahead of time allows us to fix the problem before it comes something bigger. For my family, checking the history on their devices is the best method for keeping kids safe online. A few times when my 10-year-old has used my laptop to play a math game that his school recommends I have checked the history. Each time, I found out he was on YouTube instead. I know this isn’t exactly dangerous, but he was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. I was able to find that out through the history. This also allowed me to see that he needs more supervision when he is online.
   8. Review friends lists and followers. This one is so important to me. Our kids should not have “friends” or “followers” on social media that they don’t know in real life. We have a 14-year-old, and she was adding anyone who sent her a friend request or follow request. She wasn’t doing it to be defiant or to meet strangers… she just didn’t think much of it. It’s “normal” to have many followers, and it’s almost like a competition for teenagers. Teenagers don’t think it’s a big deal, but it’s important that we explain to them WHY it can be dangerous. Our 14 year old would get random private messages from boys. In the messages, they would ask her name, age, where she lives, and if she would send them pictures. Luckily, after the talk we had, she always shows us these messages and then blocks the sender. She would never have mentioned it to us before, but we helped her understand how serious those situations can become. Even though she has earned our trust, we still check in on friends lists. This isn’t a secret we keep from her, either. She’s fully aware that we check her social media, and she understands the importance of keeping kids safe online.

I know there’s more that can be done in regards to keeping kids safe online. I am only suggesting some of the basic, easy ways. It’s a good place to start, and then you can adjust, if necessary, for your kids. Every child is different, so the level of monitoring will be different, too.

What do you do to protect your children online? Has your child ever had a scary online experience? Comment below!