The internet — including social media — can be a dangerous place for anyone who has a digital presence. This is especially true for our children, who may or may not know best practices for remaining safe online.
With location sharing and anonymous chat rooms becoming the norm, there are tons of virtual snares that can entrap children and lead to serious consequences.
If you’re wondering how to keep your children safe in a digital world, you’re not alone. Thankfully, there are some easy strategies you can use in your family to help your children stay protected online. Read on for four tips you can start implementing today.
Protecting our Children Online
In her book, Keeping Kids Safe in a Digital World, mom and researcher Mandy Majors identifies the unique challenges parents are facing in today’s world. Her research shows that the problems our kids face today are vastly different from the ones we dealt with in our own childhoods.
However, despite how much we might want to safeguard our children, the reality is our children are going to be online. Phones provide nearly limitless access to the internet, and our children can connect to the digital world whether they are at school, in the car or in our own homes.
While it might be tempting to try to lock down or severely limit our children’s internet usage in an effort to keep them safe, this will likely not yield the results we’re looking for.
Instead, according to Majors’ research, having an open and honest relationship with your children is the most effective way to protect them online. You can do this by:
- Remaining calm and rational whenever your children talk to you about their internet usage. If you lose your temper whenever your child talks to you about their reality, it makes it less likely they’ll come to you if something bad ever happens.
- Adopting a “no-secrets” family policy. Teach your children that they can — and should — always be honest with you about what they’re going through.
- Setting healthy screen boundaries for your children. Set age-appropriate limits for your kids by establishing how long they should be online and what sites they can visit.
- Teaching your kids to develop strong moral compasses. Encourage your children to read their Bible so they can make good independent choices — even if you’re not around.
By establishing ourselves as a safe resource for our children, we can improve the likelihood that they would come to us if they ever encountered a dangerous situation online — which is the most effective way we can protect them.
KEY TAKEAWAY
As parents, one of the most important jobs we have is keeping our children safe. While it can feel impossible to protect our children from online threats, we can be prepared and help our children stay away from dangers online.
“For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.” ~Psalm 91:11 (NLT)
APPLICATION
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Clinically approved by Meiby Nodarse, MS, LMHC, TBRI Practitioner
