Kids can often find it difficult to understand the difference between acceptable and inappropriate behaviour. The trouble with online chat, videos, and websites is that we tend to peruse them alone. With limited experience and understanding, how can kids know what is ‘normal’ or OK? What is inappropriate for our age or potentially harmful? This is why more and more mums are determined to be with their kids when they are browsing online.
This is a really good idea to help keep your kids safe. You can explain the difference between useful clickable content and potentially inappropriate ‘click-bait’ ads. Not all websites can fully police the ads that pop up on their sites so teaching your kids to avoid these things is important.
Social etiquette online is also really tricky to manage. You can raise your kids right, so they understand swear words are offensive and inappropriate. But you can’t stop other kids expressing themselves this way in comments boxes or chat forums. And no parent can bear the thought of their child becoming a victim of bullying online.
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While we’re all entitled to an opinion, some parents are very concerned about the expression of some opinions causing their kids harm. It’s not always easy to explain to a small child that keeping your thoughts about things to yourself is sometimes best. And helping them to make choices about which opinions are ones that are not appropriate is even harder.
Parental controls help a lot, but they won’t work forever. Policing or supervising online activity can’t work forever either. Eventually, your kids will need to do homework, and you can’t spend every moment with them. So should you educate and inform the dangers or ban all online activity when your kids are still small?
Ultimately the choice is yours. It’s an important parenting issue, and there is no right or wrong way to approach this – it’s down to you as the parent to choose the best approach for your family. You can easily find plenty for little ones with a safe kids app that has lots to educate, inform, and capture their imagination. This allows them to become familiar with all the different uses of digital technology and media. And there is no risk of clicking harmful content.
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Most resources that are safe for kids are free, so you don’t even need to worry about the cost. But it might be worth considering the future. Most homework can be completed successfully with online research. And learning can be enhanced enormously. Your child will need to know which resources are safe and reliable as truthful and informative. He may also need to know which are questionable and potentially full of errors. Are you willing to teach him the difference now?
There are many ways to keep your kids safe online, but over time, you might need to change your tactics. The internet has become an essential source of information. We use it for communication and entertainment, and it can’t really be avoided. Do you think the schools should do more to teach the kids about safety online? Or should parents have access to resources to help them better understand how to keep kids safe?
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