Your children are now full residents at home, with access internet connected devices such as the television sets, computers and mobile phones.
It goes without saying that the more time children have to spend at home because of the pandemic, the more time they have to spend in front of electronic devices be it for entertainment or education.
This means that as the adult in their life, you have the added responsibility of not just providing food and shelter but ensuring their online safety, as well.
Your children are now full residents at home, with access internet connected devices such as the television sets, computers and mobile phones.
It goes without saying that the more time children have to spend at home because of the pandemic, the more time they have to spend in front of electronic devices be it for entertainment or education.
This means that as the adult in their life, you have the added responsibility of not just providing food and shelter but ensuring their online safety, as well.
But first:
Rule of thumb: "Keep children off your work PC because they could download games or other malware infected materials that easily introduces risks to your work device. The home router should also be segregated for children and adults, and the parent/guardian should be the one with access to the controls the router," Adede says.
And as you begin to think about their online safety and protection, remember that children have the capacity to understand.
Therefore, before you go on a rampage, blocking sites which you deem unnecessary, Okong’o says that the very first line of defense is speaking to your children, to explain why they could be at risk and why the additional security measures are important.
"Protecting children online begins with having an open discussion to help them understand and appreciate the dangers that lurk in the web space and especially during these inauspicious times. This should be done using analogies that are understandable based on their ages. Popular websites could be reviewed and the need for protective measures like strong passwords explained. The outcome of this approach should be the establishment of ground rules that by role modelling, adults should also observe," Okong’o says.
Other measures to protect your children online according to Adede and Okong’o include:
1. Protecting the personal information of children. Register their online accounts using details accessible to adults and their internet surfing should use those accounts.
2. Children should be trained never to volunteer their personal information including their home address, telephone number or even emails online.
3. Teach children how to identify legitimacy of accounts by, for example, reviewing the addresses or verifying any website certificates prior to any online transactions.
4. Use internet content filtering software like Bullguard and CyberPatrol and any other that are capable of filtering child inappropriate software and that also can keep and update a database of objectionable websites.
5. The use of instant messaging amongst children should be done under supervision and with senders/ recipients of messages fully identified by or known to adults.
6. Inbuilt content filtering settings on search engines should be activated on devices used by children to access the internet.
