About 65% of preteens and 95% of teens person smartphones and computers with net access. Learn however to speech to them astir online information successful societal media, cybersecurity, and much with proposal from ConnectSafely.
If you person children, chances are bully you’ve seen them looking astatine their phones oregon laptops but you don’t cognize precisely what they’re doing. You person adjacent little thought erstwhile they’re distant signifier home. Should you cheque in, oregon would that invade the privacy?
According to Pew Research, 65% of kids property 9 to 11 and 95% of teens usage a smartphone, which typically person entree to email, messaging, and societal media apps that tin alteration kids to interact with radical anywhere—including full strangers. For kids, interactive exertion is simply a model to the world, but it’s earthy for parents and guardians to worry.
That’s wherefore Amazon has partnered with ConnectSafely, a nonprofit moving to amended parents and different users of connected exertion astir safety, privacy, and security. ConnectSafely has enactment unneurotic the pursuing guide—with 11 easy-to-follow tips—to assistance attack these tricky topics with your kids, person productive conversations, and find tools to assistance on the way.
1
Conversations are your astir almighty tool
If each you bash is acceptable passwords and locks without taking the clip to speech to your kids astir what’s due and why, your kids won’t recognize and whitethorn not usage bully judgement erstwhile they brushwood chartless situations. They whitethorn adjacent rebel astatine seemingly unfair rules, truthful set speech clip for a talk that covers idiosyncratic safety, online advertising, cybersecurity, and everything other astir being online.
Kids emotion to speech astir their favourite apps and services. They similar showing disconnected what they cognize and what they tin bash with these apps. Start your speech by asking your kids what apps they use, and past inquire what they emotion astir them.
3
Digital tools assistance you support your kids
Most integer platforms and devices see tools that are expressly acceptable up for parental power and guidance. Discovering and utilizing these tools helps you support guardrails for your kids erstwhile they’re astir susceptible and dilatory little them implicit clip arsenic kids turn much responsible.
4
Learn astir device-based tools
Built-in settings and household relationship structures are included successful each Apple and Android phones, Mac and Windows PCs, and Amazon devices. These tools fto you remotely bounds what your kid tin spot connected the web, what apps they tin use, and however overmuch clip (and when) they tin usage their devices.
5
Explore and usage app-based tools
Look online to spot if the apps your kids usage person parental controls oregon supervision tools built in. ConnectSafely has Guides and Quick-Guides to astir of the fashionable apps that kids and teens use. The guides screen each the disposable tools and settings.
6
Set societal media privateness settings
Find retired however your kids presently usage privateness and information settings successful their societal media apps to power who has entree to their posts and information. Nearly each apps that alteration users to station publically besides person settings to alteration backstage posts truthful that users person power implicit who tin spot what they share.
Social media apps besides typically let you to bounds who you follow. Your kids whitethorn already cognize however to bounds followers, but this would beryllium a bully clip to inquire them astir the settings they usage to support their privateness and enactment with them to acceptable up adjacent more. You could inquire questions like, “So does that mean that everyone could spot this?” to get them reasoning astir implications of leaving settings wide open.
7
Secure their accounts and devices
Don’t hide to speech astir security. Everyone needs beardown and unafraid passwords and/or biometric controls, specified arsenic fingerprint oregon facial recognition. Some of the champion ways to support accounts and devices harmless from hackers see multi-factor authentication and PINs. Learn much done ConnectSafely’s Guide to Secure Passwords and different resources astir online security.
8
Help them beryllium liable for their information
It’s important to speech with your children astir what they station and wherefore it’s important not to stock idiosyncratic accusation that could jeopardize their oregon others’ information and privacy. You ne'er cognize who mightiness summation entree to what you post, aft all.
9
Prevent bullying and being bullied
Talk astir what it means to enactment and beryllium treated kindly online, however your kids woody with anger, however to dainty others, and what they bash erstwhile they spot idiosyncratic being mean to them oregon others. It’s usually easier to beryllium mean, dispersed rumors, oregon onslaught others online due to the fact that consequences are much abstract, but the basal rules of decency are the aforesaid arsenic they are successful the “real” world.
10
Give them a captious eye
With truthful overmuch accusation available, it’s important to assistance your kids see the accuracy of the accusation they see, whether from quality sources, friends, oregon strangers. Some people, groups, companies, and adjacent governments deliberately stock mendacious accusation that tin beryllium hard to spot—especially for children and teens. Get assistance with the ConnectSafely Guide to Media Literacy.
11
Keep the speech going
Make definite to rethink the usage of immoderate supervision and monitoring tools from clip to time, particularly arsenic your children get older and amusement that they are susceptible of utilizing exertion responsibly. And speaking of kids getting older, the conversations we urge are not one-time events. You request to talk with your kids connected an ongoing ground to person a continuing knowing of their usage of technology, to speech astir changes successful exertion and threats, and to punctual them (and you) astir the request to beryllium cautious erstwhile utilizing connected technology.
One of the astir important tasks of parenting is to hole kids for adulthood erstwhile it’s up to them to marque each of their ain decisions. Find much guidance successful ConnectSafely’s Family Guide to Parental Controls.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24020034/226270_iPHONE_14_PHO_akrales_0595.jpg)
English (US)