
Customizable Filtering and Blocking: Nearly all protective softwares offer some degree of filtering and blocking.At the very least, parents should look for the following features: However, in the smartphone era, secondary features have become increasingly important. The primary features parents should look for are filtering and monitoring capabilities. Not all protective software products are created equally, nor are they intended to protect the same populations. When they understand this, they’re a lot more likely to accept (and possibly appreciate) the protections you want to provide.
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If you invite your children into the protection process, giving them input on what should be blocked and what should be allowed, what should be monitored and what should not, and how to best implement other protective features, they will understand that you don’t want to limit them or spy on them, you simply want to keep them safe in an age-appropriate way.
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This means you need to talk to them about your desire to install a protective software product, and then you need to involve them in the process of determining which settings are most appropriate for them. The simple truth is your children are far savvier about technology than you are, so you need them to buy into the use of protective software. If you fail to do so and simply install the protective software in secret, they will know, they will resent what you did, and they will actively find ways to circumvent the software (using friends’ devices, purchasing and using a device in secret, restoring factory settings, downloading new browsers, etc.) Before you do this, you need to discuss it with your kids. The next most effective way to keep your children safe (or at least ‘safer’) online is to install a protective software product. If there are behaviors you would prefer they not engage in, tell them, and let them know why you want them to stay away from those activities. Find out how they use their digital devices and talk about this usage in a rational, nonjudgmental way. So the best way to keep your kids safe in the digital universe is to continually sit down with them and engage in age-appropriate discussions about life online.

Unfortunately, these devices also provide access to an almost endless array of inappropriate content and contacts.Īs always, the most powerful and effective tool of parenting is communication. They rely on internet-enabled devices in the classroom, while doing their homework, when they are socializing, when they are playing, and for basic communication with friends and family. In today’s world, young people are online via laptops, tablets, smartphones, gaming equipment, and the like for multiple hours each day.
