How to keep your children safe online during lockdown

The Covid-19 lockdown has seen home schooling become the norm, much to the distress of many parents, children and teachers struggling to manage a new and unfamiliar remote teaching experience.

Many children have access to a smart device of some sort – a phone, tablet or laptop – all connected to the internet. While online security has always been a concern for parents, the changed circumstances have amplified the need for greater security awareness not only on how much screen time children spend online, but most crucially, what they could be exposed to.

But, warns Jacques de Villiers, Head of Fibre-to-the-Home of Metrofibre Networx, there is a dark side to this. “As important as the internet is, and as fundamental as it is to our daily lives and tasks especially during lockdown, for any parent, the biggest concern is that children don’t have the necessary grasp of the privacy issues and any potential threats that could put them at risk.”

Cyber bullies, stalkers, hackers and wholly inappropriate content are also online, so make sure you spend the time to educate your children about the risks, how to identify and avoid them before they happen, and that anything that makes them feel concerned or uncomfortable is cause for your immediate attention and intervention, he advises.

Two of the most important aspects of protecting your child online come down to opening the lines of communication between you so that your child shares any concerns with you, and secondly, putting the necessary security and monitoring measures in place to keep them safer online, explains De Villiers.

Here are some handy tips on how to keep your child safe online while they embrace all the educational value and treasure that the net has to offer:  

• Open cards and straight talk: Before you allow your child to access any digital platforms, have the talk.  Make sure that your children understand the risks and all the potential content that they could be exposed to, and what is appropriate and not appropriate.  They should understand that the very same ‘stranger dangers’ that lurk in the real world, exist on the web too in many different formats.  Make rules with your children such as never uploading or downloading photos of themselves or friends, never divulging any personal information whatsoever and never talk to strangers online. Your children should always clear any downloads and apps to be installed on their devices with you first.   Have an honest discussion and let them know that they can talk to you about anything that concerns them.
• Controlling online content and browsing:  With the right online app and parental controls on your favourite browsers such as Google and Youtube, you can block inappropriate content and pop-up ads.
• Google has a child-friendly version – https://www.safesearchkids.com/ – not only is it a safe search engine specifically designed for children, but there is loads of excellent material for parents and children on how to keep safe online.
• Youtube kids provides a version of the service oriented towards children, with curated selections of content, parental control features, and filtering of videos. You will need to set this up on your child’s devices and manage the settings, and the parent guide on the site is quite useful in this regard.
• Social media platforms are not intended for children and any participation of children that are younger will need express consent of a parent or guardian.  Many platforms have introduced age restrictions which have been reinforced with the European Union’s introduction of its General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018 that set the age of 16 as the digital age of consent.
• Monitoring apps – there are various parental monitoring apps that allow you to keep track of your child’s online behaviour and what they can access, and even set time limits.  Qustudio, Net Nanny and Kaspersky Kids are just some examples, and will even send you notifications if your child ventures into searches that are blocked.
• Keep track of time – lockdown has exponentially increased the amount of time that children are spending online and onscreen.  Set timetables for when they need to do their online schooling and classes, allow some leisure and play time, and then set clear times for screens to be off.  There are many handy tools and apps that allow you to manage their online browsing – many have free versions although the paid versions offer a lot more functionality, cover multiple devices and the annual plans are typically inexpensive and well worth the investment, and peace of mind!
• Virus and Malware Protection – make sure your child’s devices are protected from the usual threats posed by viruses, malware and spyware, and keep these up to date.

At no time in our history have we ever been this reliant on internet connectivity to work, learn, play, connect and communicate, according to De Villiers.

“The Covid-19 lockdown has amplified our digital reliance in unimaginable ways.  Giving your family and children the gift of fibre connectivity is a massive advantage in terms of the educational progress and ability to keep pace with the new remote learning realities, as well as access some of the incredible educational and recreational content that it holds.  But with that gift comes the responsibility of keeping your children safe online,” he concluded.