When I was growing up (maybe I’m aging myself!), we didn’t have technology as a factor in how we grew up. I think since technology has developed so quickly, our ability to develop our parenting strategies with it really hasn’t caught up and it leaves kids exposed to potential dangers online.
This is my opinion from the past eight years of school counseling. I hope you can appreciate these practical tips for keeping kids safe online.
First and foremost, be very careful and thoughtful about when you give your child a phone and online access.
I’ve honestly seen first graders with smartphones. Children of any age have limited executive functioning abilities on a good day and giving them the entire internet in their hands is a really big decision with life or death implications.
- Consider getting a “dumb phone” or limiting the functionality of their first phone.
- Use parental controls whenever possible. These are available on phones. Talk to your phone provider.
- Monitor what your child is doing on their phone. Since you own the phone, you can impose a rule to be able to look at what is on the phone. Parental controls can help with this.
- Talk to them about the dangers of what they are posting online. Giving out their phone number or address can be dangerous. Anything you post online will always exist online in some form. Do you want your kids’ future boss to potentially see that weird thing they just posted?
- Teach them early about the dangers of being a kid online. Talk about the dangers of sexting (sending or receiving naked pictures) as well as meeting up with people they met online. Kids can end up on the sex fffender list if they receive any child’s photo in a state of undress. These photos are legally considered child pornography and they can be prosecuted. I have definitely had kids meet up with someone that they thought was “just another kid” who was actually a 50-year-old sex offender.
- Set rules for screentime. Some parents have their children turn in their phones at certain times. Some turn of the WiFi capabilities.
I think above all, be as involved as you can in your kids’ inner world. Spend quality time with them, with all phones put away. If they don’t want to talk to you about it, have other adults that they trust have those conversations about how to be safe and responsible with technology.
