It’s so unfortunate to see parents expending all of their time to work, keeping up with the responsibilities of their professional life. But within all this busy routine, parents have been neglecting the responsibilities that they have as parents.
Your kids need you more than ever. Now the risks have aggrandized; it’s not just the real world dangers that they have to deal with. The online world poses much bigger threats than many parents presume. And if you already know all of this, you could probably be facing some serious pressure to deal to protect your kids from online risks. This could be very overwhelming for some parents who have very little knowledge of how the internet or social media works.
Internet-ready cell phones, tablets, and computers are full of threats that many parents are even aware of. The bullying that your child may be facing on their social networking is much worse than you think. The new anonymous friend that they made on Facebook could have be a sexual predator or harasser. The gaming apps that they use could be full of bullies.
Kids don’t turn to parents or their friends nowadays. They are more likely to ask a question from the search engine. This is particularly because of the fact that they don’t have to worry about how stupid, dumb or serious their questions are.
There was a time when parents would worry about their kids wandering into bad and dangerous neighborhoods, but now they don’t only have to keep their kids off the risky streets, but also off the risky online channels.
The challenges that parents have to face about their kids’ safety have really gone to another levels, and assuming that tucking your child into their bed is completes the job is a mere presumption. Whether our kids are sitting in their rooms or with you, or at school, they could be victims online abuse anywhere, anytime. Our kids need protection from both online and offline dangers, and this is only possible with the use of right modern tools that can support parenting in this digital era.
But first, let’s take a look at the dangers that our kids are possible facing these days.
- Targeted ads
Believe me if you are online seller, you wouldn’t really like what I am going to tell you. Well, the reality is that these targeted campaigns have been tracking our activities and even if there are sites are forbidden for our children, they would still be directed towards them.
- Unsolicited access to adult content
Quite similar to what I stated aforementioned, but not similar though. Kids could come across profane and vulgar content even if they have no such intent. This unsolicited access to pornographic content or anything else that they may not be ready for.
- Online communities
Your children interact with people from different demographic through online communities. Sometimes, your child is able to find a community that accepts them the way they are, and that’s great. But at other times, your kids could also be baited into acts that could be potentially destructive or life threatening. Too often, kids go through mental torture on these online social networks because they are bullied and encouraged to do self-harm. In other cases, they could be appreciated for doing useless and harmful activities. Pages like Unilad and 9Gag are a few examples where you could see videos of kids participating in nuisance. And with all the outburst of comments and appreciation, other kids are also encouraged to pull off risky and stupid tricks.
Then there are other types of online dangers that we can’t take for granted. Not only do we we discourage our kids from communicating with online sexual predators, but we should also shut down all the possibilities that could make this interaction possible. We need to continuously reiterate the importance of why they should be ignoring all the messages or emails received from anonymous people.
There are other measures too that parents need to take fro child’s all-around safety. They need to be how they protect their private information, and that not everything they stream or watch online isn’t real. You also need to tell them that some or most of the stunts that they see other people pulling off could be dangerous, if attempted. You can tell your child all that if you know what they had been searching online, and the kind of things are on their mind. You need to know if your child browsing some cat photos or ways for self-mutilation.
From online to offline transition
It’s quite normal for people to transition from social media channels to the real world, and there is nothing that could be done about all this because it happens so organically. Therefore, parents need to take measure that could help them encapsulate both online and offline matters of their children with the right tools. Using a parental control app is one ways to achieve all that you would need to take care of your kids’ safety. With features that could help you monitor and manage their web browsing, social media, real-time location, it can get quite simple for you to keep tabs on their every move in a non-intrusive manner.
No matter how much time you are apportioning for keeping up with your kids’ online and offline activities, it’s impossible for you know everything, but with a parental control app, it can all get quite easy and subtle. For instance, with TrackMyFone, you can monitor your kids’ call logs, emails, internet browsing history, contacts, social media, GPS locations, thus giving you a complete access to their entire world. A parental control app is our best bet at getting right on the top of our kids’ lives. Just remember that talking to your child about using a parental control app on their phone beforehand is important. Discuss with them why it’s important for you to monitor their online activity (i.e. for their safety). They need to know the risks; it’s not the time where you can shy away. Talk about sex, drugs, online dating, friendships and everything else that could be potentially harmful for your kids. it’s time to break the ice!
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