How to Protect Kids Online Privacy – The post-millennial generation loves to stay connected to the online world which allows them to socialize. The social media applications keep teens and tweens stick to their cell phones sending texts, photos, videos and voice recordings to their fellows.
While these socializing apps boost teens’ confidence and provide them distance learning, these online platforms can put several mental, physical and psychological impacts on underage social media users.
The social media and dating apps facilitate cyber-bullies, predators and scammers in finding and exploiting their targets. Parents are responsible to protect their kids from the menaces of the online world.
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Follow these tips to protect kids online privacy
This article discusses the ways that can help you protect your kids’ online privacy and safeguard them from the dangers prevailing in the digital world.
Use Privacy Settings
Almost every social media application and the online platform has some sort of privacy settings to enable users to surf the internet out of harm’s way.
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Parents must know about the privacy settings of the applications used by their kids. The internet can provide you with detailed information on the security and privacy settings of the commonly used social media applications.
Get your kid to learn these settings and help them make their profiles more secure. By using the privacy settings, you can choose from whom you want to receive messages or friend requests. There are many other choices you can make using the privacy settings of the social networking apps.
Do Not Reveal Personal Information
Posting personal information such as contact number, residential address, school name and personal photos can have terrible consequences. There are cyber-bullies, online child molesters, scammers and sex offenders who use the personal information of the target to exploit them.
A persecutor can use your contact number to send you threatening messages, whereas, the photos can be used to create a fake social media account. Let your kids know which type of information they should not expose on the internet.
Do Not Accept Friend Requests from Strangers
Social media lets you connect with the people across the world without any discrimination. However, this is not safe for teens and tweens to communicate with the online strangers.
The online world is a distrustful place where you can never be sure who is behind the screen. The stranger you are talking with can be a predator or a scammer.
Let your kids know why they should not talk to strangers in the online and offline world. Also, make sure they do not allow strangers to enter into their social media friend circle.
Make Private Profiles
The social networking apps such as Facebook allow the users to have public or private profiles. The public profiles are supposed to be used for business purpose, whereas the private profiles are for individuals. Whatever you post in the public profile can be seen by other social media users.
The private profiles do not expose your posts to the irrelevant person on that platform. Make sure your kids set up private profiles rather than the public to stay away from the scoundrels.
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Make Digital Rules
Rules and regulations can train your kids to use the online and social media platforms in a responsible and secure manner. Compile a list of rules to be followed by kids and all family members.
For instance, do not allow kids to go online after a specific time of the day. Do not allow kids to use social media, dating and gaming apps which are not appropriate for their age. You can also take help from the internet to find more examples of digital rules for kids’ safety.
Protect Password
The passwords are very significant when it comes to the social media account. Get your kids to learn the importance of protecting passwords of their online accounts. Make sure they do not share their passcodes with their fellows or anyone which cannot be trusted.
The Bottom Line
As a parent it is important to protect kids online privacy and Educate your kids about the threats prevailing in the online world and help them combat the dangers of bullying, child predation and scamming. Parents can also use parental control and monitoring apps to keep tabs on the online activities of their kids.
Moreover, these monitoring apps allow tracking the social media and dating apps including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Line, Skype and many other commonly used social and online platforms.
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