How to keep children safe online

The era of the information boom has made tremendous changes in the minds of billions of people. Our world is gradually transforming, gaining new and incomprehensible standards, the main source of which is the almost uncontrolled global Internet. One way or another, literally all young people sooner or later become part of a virtual environment, the strength of which is hard to overestimate. Who, if not us, parents, established personalities and wise life experience people, should provide maximum protection to our offspring from anything that could threaten their development, education and even life? Child safety on the Internet is the most important task that must be addressed now. How to do it and what needs to be done? What should be feared first of all and what could be the situation when parents frivolously ignore the seriousness of the consequences of their children’s uncontrolled Internet sessions? The obvious lies on the surface - a child can unconsciously expose himself, and at the same time his family, to far from comic danger ...

Point of no return

So, when your child is face to face with the operating system, a genuine interest awakens in him: how to manage all this and what needs to be done to watch your favorite cartoon? From this moment on, a somewhat silent issue, namely the safety of children on the Internet, becomes your headache. Because it is you who will show your child how to enter the Network and what needs to be done in order for the monitor screen to light up with long-awaited shots of childish joy. A modern child is incredibly perceptive, you can be sure that he will especially easily grasp the meaning and sequence of your actions. Then, during the hours of your absence, the son or daughter will necessarily apply the acquired knowledge in practice. Perhaps at first you will feel a certain sense of pride that a child can independently enter the Network and play multimedia content. You might even think that this is incredibly time-saving. However, the information security of children on the Internet today is a rather serious problem, since, in fact, the World Wide Web is incredibly dangerous for a child. Believe me, you have every reason to worry about your child when you are not around during his Internet sessions.

Global threats

Not every adult understands what to watch out for in the limitless digital space of the Internet. However, your child should not only be informed about the threats that exist, but also understand how to avoid them in the event of unusual situations. This is, first of all:

• Danger of infection through malware.
• Unhindered access to inappropriate content (content on web pages).
• Acquaintance and communication with other network users.
• Posting confidential data.
• Making an uncontrolled purchase.

Do not put off the discussion of these items with your child in a "long box", hold a kind of event on Internet security. And let such conversations become a family tradition.

Important Tips

Allocate enough time so that nothing distracts you, and then tell the child in detail what cannot be done on the Internet.

• Pop-up sentences with the text: “Install it for free” may well be an attempt by cybercriminals to install “spyware” software on your PC. That is, a certain application, voluntarily introduced by the user, will constantly send your data anywhere and it is not clear to whom. Explain that any file downloaded from the network is a potential threat. It is not superfluous to mention that a computer can simply fail as a result of installing a generally “innocent” game.
• The safety of children on the Internet also depends on how intelligibly the parents explained to the child that it is impossible to communicate with strangers in a virtual environment and also to share with them any information related to personal data.
• Caution your child against activities related to filling out various forms where you need to indicate your last name, first name and patronymic, and in some cases enter the address of residence.
• Today, a service such as online purchase through the Web is incredibly developed. It’s possible that the child will indicate your bank account number. Explain how serious the consequences of such a frivolous act may turn out.
  

A separate topic is the topic: "Information Security on the Internet." It doesn’t matter how old your children are, how confident you are that the child will not do, how much you count on the prudent behavior of your child as a whole. Only a trusting relationship with a son or daughter will help you respond to an unfavorable situation in time. Always keep your finger on the pulse of childish interests, pay attention to the slightest change in the behavior of your child. The following recommendations will allow you to better influence the upbringing of your children, as well as give you the opportunity to better understand the psychology of the younger generation.

Family agreement

Get together, as a family, and suggest developing a kind of document that will reflect all the rights and obligations of each member of the Internet community, that is, each of the home using the PC in one way or another to access the Network, including security rules children online. Do not be so afraid of such an official approach to everyday affairs. Children love it when they are “grown up”. Therefore, their attitude to the family agreement will be taken with all seriousness accessible to children's understanding. Such an event on Internet security will allow the child to enjoy respect for the attention paid to him. The result is not long in coming.

So, on the agenda!

• What kind of Internet resources (sites) can your children visit and for what purpose.
• How long a child can be on the Web (meaning the total time, taking into account the criterion of frequency).
• What actions should be taken in case something is troubling the Internet “newbie”.
• How to protect personal data.
• Politeness and principles of behavior in the information space.
• What are the safety rules for children on the Internet?

All these points should have a clear and unambiguous understanding of the wording. Of course, over time, something will have to be corrected, somewhere to be amended. However, the essence of the agreement should remain unchanged - unconditional fulfillment of the obligations undertaken (children will simply be delighted).

Teach your child to use a browser and instant messengers

It is on this skill that the basics of Internet security are based. First of all, the World Wide Web gives us the possibility of unlimited communication. That is why instant messaging services are so enormously popular. However, the process of communication on the Web still requires compliance with basic safety rules.

• Using chat, never flaunt your personal details.
• Do not talk with strangers.
• Do not be a distributor of rumors and gossip.

These are just some of the safety rules on the Internet. For the rest, you, parents, need to constantly monitor your child for new acquaintances on the Web and monitor the history of Internet pages your child visits, which, in general, is not so difficult to do by performing a few simple steps in the browser.

Charm in an adult

Trust is good! However, let's not forget that not everything can be foreseen ... There is no guarantee that the child will not succumb to the temptation (perhaps his peers will tell you, or “caring uncles and aunts” from television) to go where he is strictly forbidden to be. How to foresee such a situation and what needs to be done?

Internet Security

Perhaps you have heard of a service like Parental Control? It is with the help of this software tool that you can reliably protect your children from a frequently occurring situation - “it’s too early”. All the examples below are relevant for Windows 7.

Step # 1: Create a New Account

• In order to add a new user to the system, go to the "Start" menu - "Control Panel" - "User Accounts" - "Management ...".
• Left in the lower part of the window, click on the item "Create ..." of the same name.
• Enter the name of the new user and complete the adding process by pressing the confirmation key below.
  

Attention!

In order to use all the Internet security settings, since the Windows 7 system has some functional limitations, it is recommended to download an additional component of parental control, namely “Family Security”. You can download this application absolutely free from the official Windows Live website. However, for the correct operation of this service, you must register in the system, which, in general, will take only a few minutes of your time. At the same time, you get an amazing monitoring and control tool. By the way, in the Windows 8 operating system, the negotiated component is integrated into the OS. It is worth noting that the configuration process is almost identical to the option presented below. So if you are the owner of the "eight", you can only use the stipulated recommendations.

Step # 2: Configure Internet Security

After installing the selected component, go to the "Start" menu and activate the "Family Security" icon.

• Enter the registration data in the corresponding check boxes.
• Select the account you created for the child and click on the link at the top of the window.
• After you get to the “Family Safety” page, activate your child’s account and make the appropriate settings.

Service tools and their purpose

In the window that opens, you can set the appropriate Internet security settings specifically for your child.

• Web filter - you can restrict access to certain resources of the Internet network. Also, parents have the opportunity (the next tool of the same name) to create white and black lists of sites. Please note that filters can be combined with each other. For example, the lists of allowed or forbidden sites that you create will also be correctly taken into account by the service that monitors the main means of protection.
• Reporting is an option that allows you (the administrator) to view brief information about which sites a child visited and how much time he spent there, as well as what programs he downloaded from the Web or used on a computer.
• Time limit - you are given the right to set a limit on the use of Internet traffic, according to the specified hours of activity. That is, the Internet connection security system takes control completely.
• Restriction of games and applications are two independent tools with which you can block your child’s access to the use of a software product.

An incredibly convenient service that allows, as they say, to subtly identify the unsteady line between the concepts of “possible” and “impossible”. It makes sense to activate the option “Prohibition on downloading files”, especially in cases where the child is only mastering the safety rules on the Internet and is not entirely sure of his actions.

Step 3: Antivirus Protection

It is hard to imagine what can happen to a user machine (PC) when working on the Web if it does not have the appropriate software installed that can counteract the malicious code in the form of various program viruses. But the information security of children on the Internet directly depends on the effectiveness of anti-virus protection. For example, the popular software product Kaspersky Internet Security blocks unwanted sites for viewing. This antivirus has in its arsenal a lot of built-in filters, including its own "Parental Control", so to speak, increased vigilance. However, there are many equally effective software solutions, the “vigilance” of which may sometimes seem excessive to an inexperienced user, since the built-in firewall requires certain specialized configuration knowledge. Despite this, in order to ensure the complete safety of children on the Internet, parents should study all the nuances and subtleties of anti-virus “tuning”.

Some tricks, or What a child’s inquiring mind is capable of

First of all, make sure that your administrator login password is out of reach of anyone. Second, your child can easily get around some restrictions by changing the system time in your computer’s BIOS. An elementary solution - put a strong password to access the base system.

To summarize

Only when your child knows the basics of security on the Internet, understands and unquestioningly follows the recommendations of his parents, does the Network become a source of joy and new knowledge. However, we all must understand that without organizing an unobtrusive, but effective control, all our efforts to protect our children from the harmful effects of corrupt information are nullified. So do not particularly rely on software protection tools, do not exclude educational work after you make sure that all the "gaps" are eliminated. Be wiser, because any barrier can be circumvented, but it is unlikely that anyone will succeed in deceiving prudence. Fruitful work for you with the children!