technology
& children
maintaining the balance
The modern world is driven by technology
and children, as the stereotype says, are
driven by the technology. Generally, at
home, when we face an issue with our computer
or the mobile phone, what we tend to do is call
the nearby kid to have it fixed. Does this mean
children can use the technology the best way and
use it in the betterment of others and themselves?
The answer, sadly, is no! They are smart, but still
are kids and technology is more powerful than
they are.
Like they say about the brain that it is a great
slave, but dangerous master, the very same
principle applies to the internet. It is awesome
until you use it for references and increase the
knowledge base, but once it starts to control you,
consider yourself doomed! The type and level of
security depend upon the age of the kid, but it is
very important to keep a check on the do’s of the
children and keep an eye on the websites your
children visit. Parental computer protection is
as important as protecting your child offline.
Here are a few tips to protect your children online:
Establish rules at your home: Letting your child
know the acceptable online behavior is the first
very important step in safeguarding your child
against the devil, the internet can prove out to
be. The only time you
can set up the basic
regulations for your
children are the preteen
years. That is
when you can shape
the ideas of your children.
At 16, the preteen
years decide if
the child is going your
way or his way.
Give limited access: Setting up the number of
hours and the websites and information that he
is going to visit and limiting it to fixed amount
helps a great deal to protect your children online.
Children love spending time on Facebook and
Twitter these days, which opens them to the
predators present online.
Monitor your child’s activities: This is yet another
way of keeping a check on the activities of
your children. Remember not to confront your
kids with what they have done. Rather, bring out
other points and never let them know how you get
to know about their activities. There are various
programs available to monitor the activities of
your children offline and online. Hence monitoring
them is a great way to deal with your children
and help them take the right path.
Keep the communication channels open:
The weirdest mistake you do for your children
is to close the lines of communication and the
children see no way out of the situation they
got into. It is important to keep the channels of
communication open and use parental computer
protection, which can be a very important aspect
for securing your children. This way, you will
not be worried much about what your kids are
surfing through.
Some filters to consider for your child’s devices:
• FamiSafe - Kid Tracker & Parental Control
• Norton Family parental control
• ESET Parental Control
• Qustodio Parental Control
• Net Nanny
• Kaspersky SafeKids
• Boomerang - Parental and Screen Time
Controls.
Article by Robin Milton
36 WomanToWomanMagazine.com
/WomanToWomanMagazine.com
