Keeping children safe online

Both my boys are coming to an age where they want to be able to explore the internet and what it has to offer, mostly games /YouTube at this stage, but I’m well aware on how a couple of clicks later they can soon be on a page completely different to what they started on.

I try to monitor and limit the amount of time they spend online, this can be on the laptop but mainly it’s on the iPad.  The only issues we have had is when they are on YouTube, they’re easily led onto ‘related’ videos and slowly with every click they get further away from what it is they searched for in the first place…One time I found the eldest watching animals videos, harmless you would think, but somehow from watch funny animals, he went onto watching animals hunting other animals…this was quickly nipped in the bud and explained that these videos are not for your eyes.

If the boys are on the computer then we have adequate family internet security packages in place to try and keep them as protected as possible and by being able to monitor their activity can act on it as soon as possible.

Of course the boys are quite young still at the moment so aren’t even beginning to think about social networking, but when the time comes, we will have a chat about the do’s and don’ts of social media.

I also speak to other parents and get any tips from them on how to deal with this, and of course using the web itself and refer to articles specifically written to help parents.

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