According to Ofcom, 93 percent of all 5- to 15-year-olds used the internet in 2013, and more than a third of them have a profile on a social networking site. Meanwhile, nearly half of parents report feeling their kids know more about the internet than they do.
WLM asks tech-security expert Tony Anscombe of AVG Technologies how we should keep our kids safe in this brave new world.
What should be our main concerns with our children and the internet?
Children should be confident digital natives and most are, but they need to be safe online. As well as ensuring you have the latest security in place across all connected devices, consider the privacy aspects of what your children are doing: take care with social media so everyone understands the ramifications of oversharing. Many social media sites take ownership of the content, and while this may not cause a problem today this could be an issue in many years to come—particularly if you or your kids want that content removed.
Put the right parental controls in place so your kids can only access appropriate content and enjoy their online experience. Educate them on what to do and who to speak to if they come across content that makes them uncomfortable.
How can we control what our children can access online?
The good news is that in the UK Internet Service Providers have active choice on. This means that they offer parental filters that block pornographic content by default to new and existing customers. This is a great start in helping parents to block the inappropriate adult content. It’s not a comprehensive solution though; parents need to be aware of the types of games that their children play or what videos they stream—are they appropriate for their age?
There are many tools available, and some are free, but if you want extra protection for your family, you can buy some too. Try the AVG website, and it’s worth taking a look at Childnet and the new Cyberstreetwise website recently launched by the UK government. Don’t forget your mobile devices, and if you want to review your social media privacy settings in a really simple, effective way, check out AVG’s PrivacyFix Family.
What are the Digital Diaries and what are the most notable findings?
The latest Digital Diaries research from AVG focuses on three age groups: 0 to 2 years old, 3 to 5 years old and 6 to 9 years old. Some of the interesting UK facts were that 87 percent of parents in the 0- to 2-year-old category upload pictures of their children. Are we eroding our children’s privacy before they even have a choice?
In addition, 39 percent of parents uploaded images of their newborn child and 44 percent uploaded scan images—kids have a digital footprint before they are even born. Do parents think about the long-term consequences of this? Digital content lives forever. Even if you thought you had made them private, there is still the possibility that someone can re-post them elsewhere. Live by the rule that if you put it online then it’s potentially in the public domain.
As a parent yourself, what do you consider the best approach to take when managing the internet and social media access of your children?
Education is the most important thing for parents and their children. Help your kids understand what is acceptable on social media, how to set up privacy settings to make sure not everything is seen and teach them to use trusted websites for downloading software or apps.
If you don’t know, do it together. Learn together and don’t expect to see everything they do online—you don’t have to be their friend on Facebook or a Snapchat user to get involved. It’s important that our kids maintain good social etiquette online, just as we encourage them to do offline. This is a subject that is really close to my heart, so much so that I wrote a book about it which you can download free.
How can we protect our children online without invading their right for privacy?
Explain to them how to stay safe as you would in the physical world. You can’t watch (and shouldn’t want to!) everything that they do online, so give them the tools to be themselves. Explain the consequences of what can happen if you share too much or if your identity gets compromised. It’s no different to their sharing offline—we teach them what is acceptable and the way to behave.
Oversharing personal information such as date of birth, mother’s maiden name, location or any individual information of this type can also lead to someone stealing your child’s identity. It has been known for a child to apply for a driving license only to find they are already banned as someone stole their identity and has been using it for some time. A simple rule might be, would you write that information on a postcard and post it, with the world being able to read it? If you would not then don’t put it online either.
