The internet is like the wild west in the digital world, full of opportunities but also dangers and threats that can be costly. Implementing parental controls on internet use is essential for ensuring internet safety for kids, and it shows your dedication as a parent to keep your children safe from the negatives of the online world. Many people don’t even bat an eye towards such issues and end up becoming a victim of it in the end. So, if you have children that have access to the internet, then it is your responsibility as an adult to genuinely guide them about the do’s and dont’s of the internet usage and how they can enjoy the benefits of the internet while keeping themselves protected from any sort of online predators.
In this internet parental control guide, we will explain all the major points that can help you as a parent to navigate your way to learning all the possible issues that children face. We will also shed light on how to avoid those issues from occurring in the first place for a safe and sound internet experience for your kids.
While the internet is an ideal place to spend time watching cool and entertaining stuff, playing games, connecting with your loved ones, it has its fair share of concerns. There are many scams, online predators, harassment, bullying, inappropriate content etc. easily accessible to the kids without any restrictions.
During this day and age where even 10 year olds are being handed smartphones as gifts, controlling what these kids watch or do is a huge concern. It is not about being a controlling parent in every situation, rather it is the parents duty to safely monitor their child and their online activity to avoid getting into any sort of trouble. This is where the parental controls on internet use come in handy. It acts as a safety net that freely allows your children to explore all of the internet without getting into the shady areas that are harmful for them.
These are a bunch of tools and settings that help you to control what your child can access online. This can range from limiting their time spent on certain applications to restricting their ability to view adult content or to download games etc. These controls are essentially a way to supervise your children so that they don’t end up on the dark side of the web.
If you look at it from a technical point of view, these internet parental control tools come in different formats like:
These are settings for a specific device like tablet or smartphone or PC. It allows you to restrict certain content access, set time limitations on usage or block applications.
You can apply such settings through your router and it will apply to all of the devices being connected to it. You can block access to websites or filter certain content. Whoever connects to this router will not be able to access the block stuff.
Many apps now come with in-built parental controls. For example, Youtube has a restricted mode for filtering adult content and TikTok also offers a feature known as family pairing where the parents can link their account to the child’s account.
Some of you might be thinking that parental controls on internet use might be something technical and require some sort of expertise, but in reality it’s not that complicated. These days, many tools and apps are designed to be parental friendly. So, you can easily set up a parental control without getting into the technical nitty gritty’s of it! Here are a few common ways to do it:
Your WiFi router is an important part of your home. Most of the routers have in-built parental control settings which you can activate by simply selecting them on the router’s menu. It can be accessed via your PC or smartphone by putting in the router’s link which you can find written somewhere on your router or its box. You can block access to adult content, or even pause the internet access to your children’s devices during their homework time!
Many internet service providers like Wavenet offer parental control features that can be easily utilized. You can check with your ISP about their availability.
All the smartphones and tablets come with internet parental control settings that you can toggle on. Be it an iphone or Android device, all of them have controls to help you monitor or restrict certain activities to ensure your kid’s safety online. You can even download third-party applications that help you to control multiple devices at a time from your smart device alone.
Kids these days are into gaming a lot. Video games have a huge fan base. Kids of this era are glued to their devices for hours playing their favorite games. This exposure to games for prolonged periods can definitely have a negative affect on their health. Therefore you can use parental control settings to control their time limits and the type of games that they are playing, restrict online chatting or block mature/violent content etc. Playstation, NIntendo, Xbox all come with built-in parental controls for ease of use.
We have to face the fact that we are living in a difficult time where keeping a check on our kids is not always possible. Therefore it is very crucial for the parents to make sure their kids are in safe hands. Internet parental control has become a life saver tool for many people as it lets them keep their kids safe from online predators. How many times have we heard of cases where the children fell into some online trap that ended up costing their mental health or even worse, their lives! It is high time that the parents try their best to guide their beloved children about the safety guidelines so that they can be safe and enjoy their time online without any risk.
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