Parents are familiar with the challenges of keeping children safe when using Internet : Parental controls are either difficult to access and use, or do not exist at all for some sites, games and media content. Nonetheless, many online activities and applications provide opportunities to help mom and dad better understand restrictions on content that is not suitable for different ages.
Setting limits is a matter of family
Families often include children of different ages, making it difficult to set one type of restriction for each child. To help parents set different limits for different children, many suppliers software and streaming allow parents to set limits for different profiles. Others, however, give parents few options.
Netflix for example, offers four basic levels of maturity that allow parents to decide who is or is not a «little kid» and «older kid», etc. The iPhone, on the other hand, offers a much more complete set of services and apps that give more opportunities for parents. You can set screen time limits, determine which apps are allowed to run on your child’s phone, or set rating limits for movies and music.
Due to the wide variety of devices in any home at any given time, we’ve put together a list of the most popular sites, gaming platforms, streaming services, and smartphones to help you navigate through the many parenting options available.
To use this guide, open the links in the navigation bar. You’ll see that it’s divided into four different sections: Set Limits for Games, Control Internet and Social Media Activity, Limit Computer and Phone Usage, and Manage Movies and Music. Within each section, there are several articles filled with tips and tricks for you.
A word about online security
When working with parental controls, keep in mind that controls can go this far. Performing other activities in conjunction with these controls can create an even stronger safety net for your child.
For example, passwords are still extremely important in terms of security. Install a strong password that your child cannot crack, to help you maintain the controls you have set.
Take precautions to protect your entire home network. To prevent other people from hacking into your wireless network while your child is playing games or doing other online activities, secure your wireless network .
Finally, pay attention to the messages your children receive when they play internet games or use social media. Sometimes a simple message may contain code words that predators do not expect from parents; You can work around this problem by carefully observing, for example, who your child is friends with on Roblox, and knowing what do various abbreviations, phrases and idioms mean .