Keep your kids safe online

20/11/2018

Keep your kids safe online

With the World Children’s Rights Day coming up, the prevention organisation “DIADRASIS” made a publication. A list of tips to children and parents circulate to avoid dangerous clicks.

Safe navigation tips for children from Diadrasis

You will not give out personal information. For example your address, phone number, parental address or the name and address of your school without parental permission.
Talk to your parents immediately if you come across any information that makes you uncomfortable.
Never agree to meet a friend you are talking to online without parental permission.
You will never send a personal photo or anything else without your parent checking it first.
You will not reply to abusive messages or messages that make you feel bad or uncomfortable. It’s not your fault if you get a message like this. It is best to let your parents know right away.
You will not reveal your passwords to anyone (including your best friends) except your parents.
You will check with your parents before downloading any software installation or before doing anything that could damage your computer and mobile device or compromise your family’s privacy.
You will always act in a helpful manner towards your parents in relation to their own familiarity with the internet and its facilities in the entertainment and information sectors.

Tips for parents on internet safety

Parents need to make sure their children of all ages safe online and educated. This is necessary to protect them from inappropriate content and from inappropriate or dangerous contact.
Parents should spend time with their children exploring websites together and participating in their online activities. Children need to learn that much of what they see online may not be true. They should know that when they chat to someone online, they cannot know who they are and that the names used are often pseudonyms.
We need to teach our children never to agree to meet someone they have met online and never to send photos of themselves or their family.
For the safety of children, parents should use services or programs that give parental control over what they visit and cut off inappropriate sites.
A limit needs to be placed on the amount of time a child is allowed to stay online. Parents would do well to remember that children’s experiences on the internet do not prepare them for real interpersonal relationships.
The computer connected to the Internet that children use is best kept in an open space rather than in the children’s bedroom so that parents can more easily supervise their child’s activities.
Children should behave online with the same courtesy and good manners as in normal life. If someone is not behaving properly or if they are being subjected to any form of aggressive harassment or threats, they should inform their parents, but also family members or teachers, immediately.
We need to teach our children to follow the same rules online that we teach them when using any but a computer or mobile phone outside their home, i.e. at school, in libraries, at friends’ houses or other places.