With our current work from home and homeschooling set up, our children need to have a seamless experience while keeping safe. Everything feels like it’s moving more online, and children are having to do their work online during this lockdown period.
It is essential to educate, inform and protect them in the process, and having the right App for parental control for your children’s’ devices is very important.
Carey van Vlaanderen, CEO of ESET, says: “When you are selecting parental control software, we advise you to do it together with your kids. Talk them through the programs you’re installing and select your privacy settings together. Discuss why you are doing it and the kinds of threats you’re protecting them from.”
Many kids see control settings on the internet as a block to them having fun, so what they need is someone to explain the function and reasoning. By having this discussion, you’re giving your kids an element of control and responsibility over their online activities.
Van Vlaanderen suggests these core features which are very useful for parental control and which help protect children without invading their privacy:
* App control: Age-based filters are applied to manage which apps the child can access and use.
* Web access control: These block inappropriate websites according to the child’s age, both individually and by category.
* Time limits for fun and games: These set a maximum number of hours during which the child can play on their device. They also manage the times of day when it is used, for example, blocking access to games and apps during school hours or at bedtime.
* Geolocation: These allow you to check the device’s current location at any given moment.
* Reports: The purpose of reports is to be informed about the child’s general behaviour on the internet, so you can decide when the time comes to remove the controls. They include metrics which tell you about how the child uses the device, such as how long they spend on certain apps, how long, and so on.
The goal should be for the child to feel fully empowered, understanding what risks exist on the internet and how to protect themselves. “Above all, children should feel confident and calm in the knowledge they can talk to their parents if anything worries them or makes them feel uncomfortable when they’re online,” says van Vlaanderen.