Internet Safety and Your Nerd

The internet can be a wonderful resource for school, but access to it can be hazardous for children. It’s important to keep your children safe on the internet especially if they have any unsupervised time. Here are six tips for keeping your nerd safe on the internet.

• Talk to them
• Monitor sites
• Make sure malware and antivirus software is up-to-date
• Turn off or password protect file sharing programs
• Install internet filtering software
• Monitor your credit card and internet account charges

Talk to them

Talking to your children about their internet usage is an important step in keeping them safe. There are several things to teach your children before letting them go online. Your children should understand that their screen or username should not include personal information such as their name, birth date, or location. It’s also important that they realize that people on the internet are not always who they say they are. It’s never safe to give out personal information or send photographs to someone that you met online. They may not be a 14-year-old boy from another school. It is entirely possible that they are a 45-year-old man up to no good.

It’s also important to teach your children not to bully and to be kind to others when they are online. Your child should feel comfortable enough to come to you if they are being bullied either in person or online. Your child should also know how to block someone who is bothering them online. One other important piece of information for your children to have is the knowledge that spam is everywhere. Opening emails, documents, or clicking on links that are sent to you by someone that you don’t know is never a good idea.

Monitor sites

There are many ways to monitor the sites that your child is visiting. Looking through the browser history will tell you what they have already looked at but a safer way for your child to be online is to have your computer in a busy, family area. Many children have already figured out how to delete their browsing history, but there are ways to disable the delete history option in most browsers. A quick internet search will show you how to password protect or have the browsing history automatically sent to your email. Most browsers will just need to be set up with the parent having an Administrator account and that feature can be blocked.

Make sure malware and antivirus software is up-to-date

Having malware and antivirus software that is up-to-date can help in the event that your child clicks on a link or opens a document that contains a virus. While they cannot prevent all viruses from infecting your computer, it can help with scanning documents before they are opened to prevent damage.

Turn off or password protect file sharing programs

Turning off or password protecting file sharing programs such as Dropbox will prevent your child from sending photographs online. You can also use passwords to lock private information that is stored on files on desktops or in folders. There are ways for predators to gain access to your child’s computer using an IP address. Without having the password they would not be able to access private information such as photographs or anything that would contain your child’s address.

Install internet filtering software

There are many types of Internet filtering software. Some will download a secure browser that will not allow search topics that would be inappropriate for your child. You would be able to select a range of ages of children that will be accessing the computer and sites will be automatically blocked depending on age range. There are also programs that will alert you if a search topic that is considered inappropriate is entered into the search bar. Three that are used most often are Sentry PC, Qustodio, and Covenant Eyes. In a follow-up blog, I will be going in-depth to explain the pros, cons, and costs of each of these three programs.

Monitor your credit card and internet account charges

You should also be checking your credit card for charges that you did not make. One-click purchases make it possible for kids to get on subscriptions for pages that they looked at once. Sometimes these monthly subscriptions can be difficult to unsubscribe. The sooner you contact your credit card company to dispute the charges, the sooner you will be able to remove them.

There are many reasons to keep an eye on your children when they are going online. There are many things to keep them safe from including bullies, predators, and visiting inappropriate sites that contain violence and sex. If you are not technically savvy it can be difficult to know how to keep your child safe. Finding a supportive community where you can ask questions and get help is the most important step.

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