With back-to-school preparations for clothing, backpacks and school supplies going on, keep in mind, with our world continuing to move online, it’s also a good time to make sure your children have everything they need to be safe online during the school year.
Here’s a helpful checklist every parent should read.
For personal devices:
It’s worth remembering that the natural way for today’s kids to communicate is connected. We have to lead them to strike the right balance in their online personas. Here are some specific steps to take.
Install security software on all their devices. Kids will be kids. They’re curious and trusting, and that often leads them to click on things and get themselves — and their computing devices — into trouble. Full-featured security software is a good place to start.
Implement parental controls. Kids don’t have to go far to find questionable web sites and inappropriate social content. Even innocent searches can turn up unexpected results. Parental control software lets you block sites by category, and sends you a push notification if your child tries to access something questionable.
Check the app permissions on smartphones. Some apps (Snapchat, to cite one popular example) use GPS to track your child’s location, and that has obvious security implications. If access to contacts, location or other information on the phone isn’t central to an app’s function, turn it off.
On school-issued devices:
If your school issues laptops or tablets, chances are good that there’s already some form of security in place that sets limits on what students can and can’t do. But there are a few things you can do to set your kids up for a safe and successful school year.
Back up your child’s files. If you can, back up your child’s school files regularly. It’s a reasonable precaution to guard against infected files, an infected machine, a hard drive failure or just accidental deletion.
Prevent webcam abuse. Cover up the webcam lens with something, even with some removable tape if that’s the only option (hey, even Mark Zuckerberg does it). It’s a simple precaution against rogue software gaining control and turning on the camera.
These measures can help you do in the online world what you and every other parent wants to do in the physical world: keep your children safe. So do your research to find software that meets you and your child’s needs.
Stay Safe!
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