Create a second account with parental control
If you don’t want to change your settings each time someone touches your computer, take a few minutes to create new users accounts for each member of your family. It’s quite simple.
On a PC, just enter the Start menu and choose “Control panel”. Under “User Accounts and Family Safety” click “Add or remove user accounts”. You will also find there the parental control where you will set parameters such as schedules and accessible contents for this account.
On a Mac, go in “System preferences”, under “Users and groups” and press “+”. Once again, when you will create an account, you will also be able to activate parental control.
Have Safe search set to “strict”
Google allows you to filter the content that will appear in your search. When setting this parameter to “strict”, you are almost sure to avoid any dodgy content while searching for trivial images, even if the keywords have well-known double-senses. Also, specific “bad” words will be omitted if your child types them knowingly or by mistake.
Turn off in-app purchases
An increasing number of games and apps offer to buy a better tool, a cuter character, extra time, etc. In some games, it can be quite easy to spend $100 to avoid waiting. If you want to avoid significant and unexpected expenses, it is best to turn off in-app purchases before lending your smartphone to your child. On an iPhone, you need to look under Settings, General and Restrictions to do so. That’s where you will find the In-app purchases switch that you will turn off.
About to go viral
Tell your child what it means to get viral. Maybe your son expects a few girls from his class to see his funny dance and mention it in school. Maybe your daughter feels old enough to share her political views with the world. But they could have a very big surprise when their video will be viewed 5000 times, then 10,000 before being copied and shared by other users so that they can’t erase it anymore and the whole world laughs at them. If they don’t believe you and still want to put everything they want online, tell them about Ghyslain Raza, better known as The Star Wars Kid.
Emails
A mailbox is very hard to manage for children, and even for some adults. With all the emails presumably sent by the family that lead to adult websites and executable files, the spam and the phishing, your child could easily be confused. For a few months, sit with him and look at his emails together until he can detect frauds, fakes and viruses.
Don’t forget to tell him not to give his email address to everyone who asks if he doesn’t want to end up on every mailing list there is. If you want, you can give him an alternate email address to give on games websites and avoid getting spammed.
iTunes Gift Card
If your child has received an iPod for his birthday, buy him a gift card instead of giving him full access to your Apple account… linked to your credit card. It will be easier for him to see the worth of his purchases, he will try the free versions before spending his money on games that he might not like and he will only buy the songs that he really likes.
Crédit : 1000 Words / ShutterstockFirst, it is forbidden to use Facebook before the age of 13. So, if you listen to your child who claims to be the only one in school with no Facebook account and decide to give him one anyway, you will have to lie about his date of birth. It will give a bad example from the start.
Remember that the age of 13 wasn’t chosen randomly. It was decided because younger children are not mature enough to be there, because of what they could write but also because of what they could read. Facebook is not all innocent and Friends of Friends will not be careful because of your child when they post and leave comments.
Finally, children often bully each other on Facebook. When your child will be old enough to have his own account, show him how to hide content from specific people and how to filter his friends. Also, tell your children to avoid ganging up on someone on Internet. If they did, it would sooner or later be their turn and it’s not a very nice experience.
Passwords
A password is personal and that’s it. We don’t share passwords and we don’t share PIN numbers. If someone had your child’s password, that person could access private information and send whatever he wants on your child’s behalf. That person could get your child in trouble with his friends who wouldn’t understand the trick at that age.
This idea of explaining the use of passwords to secure personal and financial information is never explained early enough to our children. If your child has a hard time memorizing all of his passwords, you can install 1password and it will automatically type it in for him. Still, 1password requires a Master password and that password must remain secret.
Words vanish but screenshots remain
Sometimes the need to make people laugh is stronger than reason. Telling bad jokes in a classroom is not as permanent as telling that same bad joke on Internet and your child must understand that. Whether it is on Skype, on a forum, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Google Plus or by email, threats are a criminal offence. An illegal act does not become legal on Internet. Everything your children say could be held against them and “it was just a joke” will not help them when they face opponents who intend to defend themselves. Several kids have learned the hard way that they should never blackmail, undermine, harass or threaten others.
You should also tell your children to avoid arguing in writing. They could say things that they don’t really mean and their friend could read what they said over and over. To avoid that and much more, tell them to avoid writing anything that they wouldn’t write to their auntie Sally.
Photos and videos
A little picture or video that show a little bit more than usual sent to a boyfriend or a girlfriend can seem very innocent to a teenager who doesn’t know that his love is probably not going to last forever. They only need a good quarrel for that picture to be shared and printed and used to diminish them. This concept is even possible for adults as there are websites dedicated to frustrated lovers who want to show their ex-boyfriends and former girlfriends. They’d better avoid sexy pictures and videos altogether.
