How to Teach Your Kids About Online Safety: Practical Tips and Resources

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Are your kids learning to navigate the internet? In this article, we will share with you about the importance of online safety.

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In today’s world, kids are often online using different websites for research or content creation on a daily basis. As young kids learn to navigate the internet, teaching them how to stay safe online is important.

Having conversations early and often is one of the best things you can do to help your child stay safe online. Different resources are also available to help protect your child from mature content and allow you to monitor what they are viewing online. Teaching your kids about online safety can help establish trust as they use online resources for any school activities they are working on at home.. 

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One of the best resources out there is the AT&T Secure Family® app.  This resource allows you to manage the content your child is viewing online as well as the time they are spending on their devices. In fact, you can control the amount of time they are spending on their devices by turning off screen time whenever you want. 

Another great feature is that it allows you to track their locations and even receive alerts when they arrive or leave a location. This resource also allows you to filter the internet content your child is viewing to make sure it is age appropriate. 

7 Practical Tips to Teach Your Kids About Online Safety

While there are numerous ways to teach your kids about online safety, the most important thing to do no matter what strategy you use is to have open communication. Making sure your child feels safe if they have seen mature content or have questions is one of the most important components to keep them safe online. However, there are also practical things you can do to help them stay safe as well. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #1: Establish Clear Boundaries 

When your child is online using different resources, they should know what the rules are for using different websites and apps. For younger kids, it is important to make sure they know to ask for permission before accessing a new website. 

With older children, there needs to be specific rules in place for what they are and are not allowed to view online. As kids age, the boundaries may change and it is important to have conversations often to make sure you and your child are on the same page. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #2: Review Simple Safety Rules Online

Many families have a list of rules they use when browsing the internet. In fact, it can be helpful to have the list printed out and on the wall near the computer or device your child uses frequently. Things like not talking to strangers online, never giving out your password, and not signing up for different resources without parental permission are just a few ideas to have on your online safety list. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #3: Use A Parental Safety App

Installing a parental safety app such as AT&T Secure Family® helps you monitor your child’s online usage even more. While reviewing things like browser history is a helpful tool to monitor your child’s online presence, having a detailed tool in place that goes deeper can help you and your child feel secure about their online safety. With AT&T Secure Family you can rest easy knowing you can filter internet content and keep your child safe while they are online. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #4: Teach Your Kids About Clickbait Links

Clickbait links often intrigue young kids as they tend to have fun images or bright and flashing colors. Explaining that many websites use advertisements to your child can help them understand what clickbait links are and how to avoid them. This also goes along with deciding whether a website is legitimate or not. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #5: Practice Choosing Reliable Websites

When your children are little and on the computer, you will likely be the person choosing the websites for them. But as kids age, they will need a little more freedom to be able to search content for research and different activities and projects. This can get tricky when there is a lot of misinformation online. 

Practice searching for content together to work on teaching your child how to decide whether a website is reliable. Remind them that anything with a .edu or .org at the end will likely always be safe but if it is an organization they have never heard of before they need to ask permission before browsing the site. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #6: Discuss Appropriate Use of Social Media 

As online platforms like Instagram and TikTok continue to grow, kids are asking for social media access earlier and earlier. The age you choose to allow your child to have social media is a personal choice, but once they have an account it is imperative to discuss how to use it wisely to keep them safe.

 Make sure the accounts are set to private. Remind them to never give out personal information or enter into chatting with a stranger. Follow the account yourself to ensure they post and search for appropriate content. 

Practical Online Safety Tip #7: Teach Your Kids About Digital Footprints

As kids’ brains are developing, they are often focused more on the present and less on the future. This means that when they are online they aren’t thinking about consequences that may occur from things they post or put on websites. Teaching your child about digital footprints will help them learn that anything they post on websites, chat rooms, and social media can have a lasting imprint. 

Final Thoughts About Online Safety for Kids

Remember that the best thing you can do to keep your kids safe online is to have open and honest conversations regularly about what they are viewing online. Putting safety features in place such as AT&T Secure Family® is a great way to both monitor and protect your child while they are spending time online. The internet can be an amazing resource for families working on learning and projects at home, it simply needs to be monitored while in use.