The online world has become a way of life for many people around the globe. In their free time, you can see them browsing various sites or on their favorite social media platforms. But even though almost everyone has access to the internet, even kids, you as a parent should supervise your child’s introduction to the internet. It would be best if you didn’t let them do it on their own. It’s because there are lots of pitfalls that can bring unpleasant consequences.
If not introduced responsibly and guided, children can fall prey to unscrupulous individuals looking to exploit them or even get exposed to foul language, pornography, cyberbullying, unsuitable music, violence, and many other inappropriate things. In this article, we’re going to look at 4 tips on how to introduce your child to the online world.
Don’t Allow Your Child to Surf Online Before They Attain a Conscious Age
One mistake many parents make is allowing their kids access to the internet before they reach the right age. You can see kids as young as four or five on their parents’ phones surfing online. The reason for this may be that they don’t want to be disturbed.
However, even if it may sound harsh, that is irresponsible behavior as a parent. A kid as young as four may not be able to differentiate between right and wrong. You may see them replicating what they’ve seen online. And even if you try to try them that it’s wrong, they won’t understand.
The ideal age to introduce your child to the internet is 8 or 9 years. By the time they reach this age, they would have gone through 3rd grade and learned to differentiate between good and bad things. Whenever they see something bad online, they’ll realize it’s not appropriate for them and not visit that site again.
Control the Time They Spend on the Internet
We’ve mentioned that you should let your kids reach a conscious age before permitting them to surf online. However, it doesn’t end there. You should also be keen to control the time they spend on the internet. You shouldn’t leave them on their phones or computers for the whole day. If you don’t restrict their time, they’ll get used to the online world, and you’ll have a hard time telling them to do other important things. They won’t be able even to study well. Therefore, set time controls. For instance, you can allow them to surf online after they’ve finished their homework in the evening, for around 2 hours.
During weekends when they’re not going to school, you can allow them to do it during the afternoons. Remember to be strict about it.
Establish Parental Control
You shouldn’t give your child a phone, tablet, or computer just like that; set parental controls first. Parental controls are vital because they reduce your kid’s chances of coming across unsuitable content. These are security features that you enable on a device allowing you to block the sites you don’t want your child to visit, such as porn sites. Through parental controls, you can also see the websites your kids are visiting (to see whether they’re safe) and the time they came online. Where can you find parental controls? You can get them from your ISP, on your computer operating system, search engines, and many other places.
Note: Parental controls are not always 100% effective. Therefore, you should take the time to educate your kid about using the internet safely and responsibly.
Use Spokeo to Control Your Child’s Online Activities
Your child has reached a conscious age, you’ve done your job to set time control limits, and even established parental controls. There’s one other thing you need to do – monitoring what they do online. And, you can do this with the help of a reverse lookup service like Spokeo.
How does Spokeo phone number lookup work? You just need to enter your kid’s phone number, and it could reveal social media accounts and email addresses they’ve registered. This way, you can go through these social media profiles and see what they’ve been doing. Using Spokeo reverse phone lookup is an excellent way to monitor your kid, especially if you want to stay discreet.
Conclusion
The internet is one of the greatest inventions we have today. It allows us to do incredible things that we couldn’t do a few decades ago. We can chat with people across the world, share our photos and videos, and even attend online classes to learn. However, even though the internet is useful, it also has bad things that kids shouldn’t be exposed to at a young age. These tips that we’ve discussed will help you introduce your kids to the online world appropriately so that he/she uses it responsibly and safely.
Maguire Haigh is a marketing manager for Spokeo. He is interested in the latest technology trends, marketing strategies and business development. He also prefers traveling, exploring the world and meeting new people. Maguire has great experience in creating and editing articles on different topics.
