Online Risks To Your Children

Following are Online Risks To Your Children

Strangers / Criminals: These are individuals who establish online relationships with your children in order to take advantage of them. Once they gain the trust of a child, they may ask for pictures, information or even to meet in person. Friends: These are people your children already know, and are often other kids at school. Friends can pose a serious threat as online bullies. Remember that bullying no longer means just physical confrontation. Cyber bullying can be far more abusive, as you may not know who the bully is and their attacks can be both more aggressive and very public. Themselves: In today’s world of social networking children can be their own worst enemy. Anything they post is accessible not only to the entire world, but once posted may also be difficult or even impossible to remove. Your children may not realize how these postings can impact their future. The Internet is a powerful tool we want all of our children to learn how to use and leverage. However it also comes with certain risks. Below is an overview of these risks and how to mitigate them. Education: Talk to your kids about risks of being online. Make sure they feel comfortable talking to you about anything they do not understand or are afraid of. Education is the best security measure you can take, technology is changing too fast for technology to solve you and your children’s problems. Dedicated Computer: Have a dedicated computer just for your kids and keep it in a public area. Ensure each child has their own, non-privileged account so you can track their activity. Consider a separate homework account for unlimited homework use. Mobile Devices: Put hours or limitations on when mobile devices can be used, and create a central family charging station where children put the mobile devices when not in use. Computer Rules: Have a set of agreed upon rules and post those rules next to the kids’ computer. Technology: When kids are younger you can use parental controls and other software to safeguard their activities; this is especially helpful in preventing them from accidentally visiting inappropriate websites. However as children grow older technology becomes less effective. Online Rules Example Here is an example of some possible rules you can use with your kids. If they are old enough, you can have them help create the rules. Make sure these rules are understood, agreed upon and posted. You may have to update these rules as they get older. 1. Each child has their own, dedicated non-privileged account on the family computer. You may use this account for personal activities including gaming or talking with friends. There is a separate, shared account on the computer just for homework. You may use this account only for homework or any educational purposes, such as khanacademy.com or wikipedia.com. You may not use the homework account for gaming. 2. Each child gets thirty minutes of personal computer use per day during weekdays and one hour personal computer use per day on weekends. Time on the homework account is unlimited, but is limited to educational activities only. Time and activities are enforced through parental controls. 3. You may only use mobile devices during certain times of the day. Specifically, on weekdays you may use mobile devices for no more than 30 minutes between 3:30pm and 7:30pm, and on weekends no more than 60 minutes between 8:00am and 7:30pm. When you are not using mobile devices they must be at the family charging station. 4. Each child will be responsible for maintaining their own accounts, including remembering their own passwords. 5. Each child promises to tell Mom or Dad if any strangers ask them odd questions or keeps trying to talk to them, if any friends are mean to them, or if they find any websites that are scary or they do not understand. You will never get in trouble for letting Mom or Dad know you feel uncomfortable, asking questions or letting them know you need help. 6. When asked by a parent to leave the computer or mobile you have fifteen seconds to pause the computer or log off. 7. Access to technology is a privilege, not a right. When you fail to follow these rules, punishment can include being banned from using computers or mobile devices. Source: SANS