Top 15 Internet Safety Tips for Children and Teens

The internet has become one of the hottest places for entertainment and education. This has made children and teens spending more time on the websites with no restrictions. Most of the websites they visit have content that is not suitable for children and teens, hence increasing their risk of online offenses and privacy concerns.

It is, therefore, even more important to help kids and teens understand the importance of privacy. Parents can do things such as choosing the best VPN providers, setting parental control, monitoring their browsing or gaming activity, but all of those have limitations. At the end of the day, parents still need to make kids feel they’re trusted.

In this article, you will be able to learn  top 15 internet safety tips for children and teens when online. You will discover just how to use social media with your child in a way that is safe for them. Let’s take a look at some of the internet safety tips for kids.

Are you worried about your kid’s online safety? Did you know that most attackers tend to target young kids and teens? Are you searching for tips and tricks to keep your kid’s and teens’ safety online? If this is the case, then you have visited the perfect place.

The age of digitalization has created a vast influence on parents as well as kids and adults. Every task can be performed using devices that can fit on your palm. And, many tasks can be completed way earlier than before using digital technology.

The Internet is helpful in many ways and various sectors, but it does come with flaws. Internet users have to face countless inappropriate behaviors online. Many users revealed being bullied and attacked through social and other online media.

Especially kids and young adults are not safe online. Online predators and online attackers always seek to exploit kids’ and teens’ online safety for their benefit. So to maintain your child’s safety, parents need to learn and teach their kids and teens about internet safety rules.

We suggest these two best parental control applications that will help you ensure your kids’ and teens’ safety while using the internet.

15 Top Internet Safety Rules for Kids and Teens

There is no doubt that the internet is an amazing platform for your children to educate themselves and perform various activities. Most kids and teens prefer computers over textbooks to complete their research and homework. So, restricting your adult child from being online is not an option.

What you need to do is you have to follow the rules for online well-being to get maximum benefits from the internet. As a parent, you need to learn about online safety and help your kids understand it.

Furthermore, here we have listed #15 most important internet safety tips for you to ensure your kids and teens/tweens are safe.

Keep your Information and Profiles private.

Due to the increase in popularity of social media, the gathering of personal data is easy. Childrens should be taught not to post pictures and information about their family on the internet. As a parent, you should teach your kids and teens to do the following activity to keep their data private.

• Here are some tips to keep your data and profiles private.
• Do not post your home location and relationship status on social media.
• Never post your interest and hobbies because online predators can use them against you.
• Use antivirus software to get rid of spyware.
• Never share your data and information with people you don’t know personally.

Use Parental Control Software.

Parental control software is the best modern parenting tool that helps you ensure your kids and teens are using the internet safely. Various parental control tools help to protect your children from digital hazards.

fenced.ai is a complete parental control solution that assists parents to keep track of their kids and teens for the safe use of the internet safely. The fenced.ai team aims to equip parents and guardians with powerful tools to help them take proper care of their kids and protect them from online hazards in the current digital world.

Features of fenced.ai

• Monitor Calls, SMS, Email, and browsing history.
• Keep track of social media like WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook, Instagram, and skype.
• Tracking Contacts, device location, and SIM location.
• Watch applications, photos, and videos.
• Records your kid’s Keystrokes.
• Keeps traces of connected hotspots
• Alerting systems like location alerts, keyword alerts, Wi-Fi change alerts, and uninstall alerts.

Usage of VPN.

Virtual Private Network(VPN) can be very useful when you are surfing online as it guarantees your internet safety. VPN secures your identity and location while surfing the internet. While using a VPN, attackers have fewer chances of getting your information and cannot launch a proper attack on your system.

Here are some of the benefits of using VPN secure software.

• Hides your Internet protocol(IP) address and lets you remain anonymous.
• Encrypts all your online activities and enables safe search.
• Gives you the option to surf the internet using your desired location.
• Your Internet Service Provider(ISP) cannot track your browsing activities.
• Gives you access to some content that is restricted in your country.

Do not Download or Install Unknown Applications.

You can secure your teen’s device by not allowing them to install or download any unknown applications without your permission. You need to provide them advice on what they need to download and what should not be downloaded on your kid’s device.

There are different fake software that are spam and your kids are unknown about them so they download on their device and the virus gets activated. You need to practise them only to download files from trusted sources in their device. You can also use a site advisor which detects the appropriate and inappropriate sites to download in your children’s device.

Choose a Strong Password.

The only way to secure your private accounts online is to use a password. But most of the kids, teens, as well as parents, use very weak passwords.

Using weak passwords can be used against you to exploit your internet safety and expose your data to attackers. So using the right kind of password is essential to secure your data. You can use a combination of letters to make your password strong.

Here are the tips on how to create and maintain a strong password.

• Do Not use simple passwords such as names, phone numbers, and birthdates.
• Don’t set a similar password on all of your social media and other online accounts.
• Don’t set the password that you have previously used.
• Use 12 or more characters while creating a password.
• Always use the combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols while setting a password.

Keep your Antivirus Software updated.

The use of viruses, malware, and Spywares to exploit internet safety is increasing. It is because most people do not use antivirus software. In the absence of antivirus software, attackers can easily plant viruses on your system. So you need to protect your child’s device by updating antivirus software frequently.

There are many free antiviruses available that can provide you with limited home security. But the paid version comes with all the necessary safety functions. Here are some of the most important features of antivirus that help you with internet safety.

• Protects you from computer viruses and their transference.
• Helps you to block unwanted advertisements and spam.
• Protects you from infected removable devices.
• Helps to keep your private data and information protected.
• Increases your PC performance.
• Protects your kids and your passwords.
• Provides you with firewall protection to deal with spyware and malware attacks.

Never Response to Rude and Fake Messages or Email.

As a parent you need to encourage your kids and teens to ignore messages which are rude and inappropriate. Cyber bullying is one of the main concerns which is increasing rapidly and your children might be the victim if you do not pay attention to their activity. Mainly childrens and teenagers are bullied online so you need to communicate openly with your kids about their online activities and prevent them from being the victim.

So once your child gives a response to a rude and inappropriate message or Email it cannot be erased on the other side and the information gets shared everywhere. Once you find your child’s conversation with a rude and unknown message, you can immediately block them and prevent further communication.

Be Careful of What You Post Online.

Posting online can be fun as you can keep an eye on your friend’s and family’s activities. But you should protect yourself and protect your kids and teens from posting inappropriate content. Internet users especially, social media users, love to post pictures, videos, news, and much more. Posting online can be a great way to learn and know about each other.

But posting unwanted things on the internet can be harmful. Posting sensitive, pornographic, violent, and fake information will haunt you afterward. Here is the list of some most sensitive things that you shouldn’t post online.

• Control and limit the visibility of your post.
• Never post your current or personal location.
• You should not share sensitive videos or pictures of your friends and family.
• Do not post pictures of your personal documents and financial details.
• Never post fights, unofficial political affairs, and inappropriate jokes online.

Practice Secure Browsing.

The most effective and easy method to follow internet safety rules is to practice secure browsing. Secure browsing will definitely decrease the chances of being attacked.

Most of the users know about trusted or secured sites and distrusted or unofficial sites. Simply not visiting distrusted or unofficial sites can help you to browse securely. You should follow the following tips and tricks to practice secure browsing.

• Use a secure browser and browse mostly using the incognito mode.
• Usage of kid-friendly web browsers for kids.
• Only visit official and trusted sites.
• Make a habit of visiting sites with Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure(HTTPS) rather than websites using HTTP.
• If possible, use VPN software.
• Do not visit sites containing pornographic or violent content.

Use a Privacy Setting on Social Network Platform.

Most of your social media where you share everything are public and every person can see them. So when you post photos, videos, stories, etc., you need to limit them only with your friends. When a random person gets access to your photos, they might misuse them.

When your children are using social media, it is better to check the privacy and ensure all their social media accounts are private so that whatever they share cannot get accessed by hackers. You can use two-factor authentication to protect your kid’s and teen’s social media accounts from being hacked.

Shop Using Trusted Sites.

Online shopping sites and applications have made life easier for both parents and kids. But whenever you purchase some things online, you need to be careful because you have to provide them your credit or debit card numbers.

 

Online shopping fraud cases are increasing day by day. So, you should be careful about sharing your bank details with untrusted sites. Here are some of the ways you can use to prevent yourself and your kids from online scams and online shopping fraud.

• Only shop using sites with strongly encrypted systems.
• Do not let your kids shop online using your credit or debit cards.
• Use a strong password on your trusted shopping site account.
• If possible, use antivirus software to prevent your system from spyware.

Do Not Share Social Media Passwords with Anyone.

Social media account contains all personal information in it and your children might share their social media passwords with their close friends. They also might use similar or the same password in all other accounts and once they share a password it becomes easier to get access to all other platforms.

It is impossible to keep anything secret once they share their password with anyone. Sometimes their close friends might hand it over to someone else and the information might spread from person to person.

Also sometimes the person you trust most can be fraud and misuse your account. So when your kids hand their password to others and if they changed password, your kids or teens cannot do anything and people might misuse their accounts

Prevent Talking To Strangers.

Using the internet, we can have contact with people from different parts of the world. It is a delightful thing, isn’t it? But this is not always the case. The internet hosts many strangers who may be online predators. Most of the strangers you meet can be legit, but you still cannot fully trust them.

Online predators are the strangers who want to exploit your kid’s and teen’s safety by abusing them physically or sexually. Many kids and young teenagers, especially, girls have been the victim of online predators. And the ways to prevent it are listed below.

• Only add legitimate friends and families online.
• Always keep your profiles and posts private.
• Never meet an online stranger physically.
• Don’t post your interests and hobbies online, as they can be used to manipulate you.
• Spend less time on the internet.

Do Not Open Sites That are Inappropriate.

Sometimes the inappropriate sites get displayed on the device while using the internet and your children might click them. It might be harmful and not appropriate for them according to their age. As a parent, you must inform your kids and teens not to use any unknown link and site and tell them about the risk that should be faced by them.

Getting access to inappropriate links or websites can be dangerous if you kids are unknown about it. Sometimes hackers send an unknown link to their messenger and they might click the link from where hackers get information about them. So, you need to restrict your child and make them aware about those factors.

Control Gaming Time.

Kids and teens adore online games. Gaming makes them happy and helps their brain get energized. But most of them get completely addicted to it. Getting addicted to gaming deteriorates both mental and physical health.

Also, there are reports of rising violence and inappropriate behavior in online games. So to solve the problem of over gaming and violence in games, just follow these simple tips.

• Use parental control apps to limit gaming time.
• Blocking and reporting toxic behavior online can help your kids.
• Use pings instead of using text and voice chats.
• Restrict in-game purchases if your kids are wasting the money on games.
• Parents should have open conversations, and spend more time playing with their kids.

Why is online safety for kids and teens so important?

Kids do not know about the real world, and they are training themselves to navigate the world. Kids are innocent and can trust anyone, and that’s why they are always at high risks.

Childrens today own smartphones, laptops, tabs, and gaming consoles from an earlier age. They are online most of the time and are highly prone to online attacks. And also, they do not take internet safety rules seriously and can become victimized easily.

Since kids and teens do not have much information about rules for online safety, they get frequently exploited. Some of the problems children run into when they are online are:

• Exposed to inappropriate content and behavior.
• Disclosing personal data.
• Downloading illegal files.
• Cyberbullying.
• Inappropriate file sharing.
• Viruses and spyware.
• Internet addiction.

The problems listed above can put your children into some serious trouble. It can deteriorate your child’s mental and physical health. Information leaks may even ruin your family’s reputation. So, you need to be very aware of your kid’s and teen’s online safety. And teach them to follow some important safety rules.

FAQ’s

How can I save my children from digital threats?

Threats to children’s internet safety includes cyber bullying, harassment, sexting, pornography, and so on. You can save your kids and teens from these hazards by using parental control apps and communicating openly with them about the online risk and its consequences.

Is internet safety essential for kids and teens?

Internet safety is essential for all the users as it is very risky when not used properly. Specially kids and teens become the victim of cyber crime as they are unknown about its consequences. So internet safety is very essential for them.

Conclusion

Internet safety protects your teens and kids from being involved in violence and risks when you implement the safety rules for them while using the internet in any platform.

Once you find your kids and teens using inappropriate content that you have restricted, you need to take action and communicate clearly regarding the risk of using those sites and their punishment.

Thus, online safety is very essential to ensure your children’s safety and protect them from being victim of frauds. If you are worried about your kid’s and teen’s internet safety, you can use the above-mentioned tips.