The internet is a marvellous tool. It helps us learn and understand the world as well as helping us to work well with others. And it allows friendships to be maintained across the globe. But at the same time, it’s incredibly important to pay attention to the downside of the internet.
For your family, the internet can mean parental control issues, inappropriate content, viruses and malware, and issues related to bullying and anxiety for your kids.
In this guide, you’ll discover how to keep your family safe when using the internet in your home in 2020.
1) Best Internet Security
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There’s no doubt that you should start off by taking a strong look at your internet security provisions. By basing your whole holistic internet security strategy on your ability to maintain and run an effective cybersecurity system. Those that are based on the internet – and thus enable strong and robust internet security – are the ones you should look for in order to give your family that much-needed protection from viruses and bad actors on the internet.
Remember that the internet is full of such malware, and it’s especially difficult for your children to detect malware when they come into contact with it. So giving them that safety and security system will really help them stay away from damaging content and downloads.
2) Parental Controls
One of the best provisions from software providers, home security systems, and search engines is their ability to hide specific areas of content from your children. It’s clear that some form of parental control over the content that’s on the internet is a wise decision. Also can help you ensure that your children are only able to access the information, pictures, videos and text that is appropriate for their age groups.
Make sure that you know how to make these changes to parental controls, in order to exercise some form of control over what your kids see, and where they might experience negative effects from their use of the wonderful resource that is the internet.
3) Open Conversation
Even with parental controls, there will be times in which your children have negative experiences with the internet and the platforms that they regularly visit. Because this world is so often hidden from you. It can be very difficult to understand just what’s going on in your child’s mind. And how you can make changes to their behaviour to protect them from some of the negative aspects of being connected. Childhood internet issues may be related to:
- Bullying and exclusion on social media
- Body issues related to standards set on Instagram
- The exposure to extreme content on sites such as YouTube
- Heightened anxiety related to always needing to post and be connected
- Lost sleep, with devices used through the night
All of these factors and results should be considered by responsible parents looking to protect their kids from the internet’s less thrilling elements. And that starts with open and honest conversation and asking your kids how their digital lives feel.
4) Family Data
Across all of the devices that you use in your home, there’s a great deal of private family data that you’ll certainly wish to protect. If this data is breached or stolen, you can find yourself without the ability to protect your family from the negative consequences of having your privacy breached, and this can be difficult both financially and for your mental health. The key here, other than running that all-important cybersecurity system, is to be wise about your family’s data and how it’s protected.
This starts with the profiles that you all own and contribute to. You need, as a family, to agree on passwords that you never share, and that you keep very secret. Also, You need to decide upon how you share data across your devices. Make sure your kids aren’t liable to accidentally share private and personal data. Some locked folder on the cloud can facilitate this, for instance.
5) Education
Both adults and children can learn from each other when it comes to the digital world. And you can also learn together – by finding yourself some interesting and engaging content on the internet that helps families find ways to stay safe on their individual and collective roams across the world wide web.
By making this education a collective exercise, you’ll be better able to understand all of the risks on the internet, and your whole family will be savvier when it comes to threats to your devices and your privacy.
There you have it: five of the most important tips to keep your family safe when using the internet in your home.
