It’s back-to-school time! And whether that offers some relief, unease, or both, we’re here to support families with one crucial issue: internet safety. It might be frightening for parents to consider the risks of the internet. However, it doesn’t need to be. Despite its flaws, the internet is a fantastic resource for education and social interaction.
Providing children with the tools they need to make wise decisions online is crucial as they return to school with new gadgets and online learning facilities. One of these tools is parental control. Parental controls can help parents ensure their children enjoy the school year while staying safe online.
In this blog, we discuss the importance of parental controls, what they are and how they can help your child stay safe online, even when you are not watching.
What are Parental Controls?
As we are raising a new generation of tech-savvy kids, it’s important to monitor your child’s internet activity. No matter if they are in the middle of primary or secondary school, or whether they are in the classroom or completing schoolwork online. While you might receive some pushback initially, especially from teenagers, parental controls are extremely beneficial in monitoring your children’s internet safety.
The term “Parental Controls” refers to a set of options that let you decide what information your child can view. These, together with privacy settings, can assist you in shielding children from offensive material, cyberbullying, and other online safety concerns.
Setting up strong security software with parental controls on all devices can assist both parents and kids in navigating the digital world while educating everyone on online dangers and content that might be too much for children to handle.
Parental Controls – Monitoring Online Activity
The majority of internet-enabled devices, such as laptops, smartphones, tablets, and game consoles, include parental controls.
However, the simplest approach to control what your children can access on all of your devices and computers at home is to set parental controls through your internet service provider. Most internet service providers, like Fastcom, can do this quickly and usually without charge.
Parental controls can:
Limit the information your children can access via a search engine. This includes filtering out offensive websites and other content while placing restrictions on the ability to download or buy specific types of apps or games.
Observe and document the websites and apps your children do have access to.
Keep an eye on what your children post or view on social media.
Limit the amount of time spent online. This includes limiting time spent on apps/games or the internet as a whole.
Restrict access to games, videos, movies, or TV shows based on age ratings.
Delete any song with offensive lyrics.
Manage the access and use of particular devices on your home network.
Change Passwords Regularly
Since students frequently log in to the same learning resources they use at home and on campus, back-to-school time is an excellent opportunity to update passwords. It’s crucial to teach children the fundamentals of password hygiene, such as routinely changing passwords and storing them in a secure location.
Talk About the Dangers
Express your worries in detail. Make sure they are aware of what you are looking for when monitoring their online activity (inappropriate content, cyberbullying) and your concerns. Search for social networking and messaging applications, and see how your child uses them. With them, go through their YouTube and browsing history and go over any potential issues.
Internet Matters have designed an easy-to-follow guide on how to set up your children’s device before they use it so you know they are browsing safely.
How Fastcom Can Help
At Fastcom, we can assist in setting up parental controls that will not only keep your children safe online but, educate your children on the value of caution and common sense when using the internet.
Our wireless routers have the ability to install parental controls, allowing you to limit household internet consumption.
We can customise parental controls for each user by creating several profiles, assigning them to particular devices, and controlling when and how long a particular device is permitted to access the internet. Once this is set up, parents are then able to gain access to as many of the different features listed above as they wish.
To get started, view our whole range of home broadband packages here.
If you are already a Fastcom customer, speak to one of our support teams for help on how to set up parental controls on our router.
We connect. You communicate.
ความคิดเห็น