The digital safety of your children is up to you!

Today, more and more hurricanes are using digital and smart devices, so parents need to be thoroughly prepared for online security risks and be aware of possible solutions.

In families with smaller trifles, typically between the ages of 5 and 10, fathers and mothers are well aware of the life-saving role of a smartphone or tablet when it comes to seizing the little ones. Sure, it™s not very healthy for kids to stare at the screen until the sun, but when applied in moderation, digital content can help develop creativity or other skills. And digital technologies can make life easier for ancestors in other areas, just think of baby monitors and baby monitors that can be controlled from a smartphone. their seedlings and can even contact them at the touch of a button if needed.

So gadgets connected to the internet can be very useful, but at the same time they have a serious downside that not everyone pays enough attention to, and that is a matter of online security. Even today, it is not uncommon for a parent to not properly protect their own devices or their various online user accounts, exposing themselves not only to unnecessary and avoidable risks, but even the smallest ones.

We™ve gathered below what to look out for when giving smart devices to your child or installing internet-connected devices in your home, especially in rooms used by minors.

Don't leave the nursery door open virtually!

No one would be happy to have wild strangers set up for their children from the street, yet many practically invite unauthorized people into the apartment through various smart devices. One reason for this, as evidenced by the list of weakest and worst passwords that appear year after year, is that many people still use passwords (password123, admin123, etc.) that are simple and easy to figure out on their home Wi-Fi network. to protect a user account or Facebook account that is also used on your smartphone. Moreover, it is common for a single weak password to protect all their devices and digital accounts, which means that if a password is hacked or the password is leaked somehow, there is no need for even a hacker to take control in an instant. over the digital lives of others.

The ideal is stronger, the longer, and the more punctuation it contains ” uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, non-alphanumeric characters ” and the harder it is to guess by guessing or some tracing. So it™s not a good choice if the password includes the name of the family dog ‹‹or just your date of birth. Of course, this is a bit of an inconvenience, but going back to the statement made above, it would be much easier to leave the door of the apartment wide open, but it is easy to see that it would not lead to much good. And if you already use strong passwords, be sure to change them at regular intervals (every few months) to make things more difficult for cybercriminals.

It is equally important that you regularly update the factory-installed software on all Internet-connected devices in your family, as this is the best way to work around this vulnerability. Although they are generally more expensive, it is worth choosing more reliable, well-known brands for their various digital gadgets, if only because larger companies typically respond much sooner if one of their products turns out to be a security issue. Protecting obscure "smart" devices developed by smaller companies is often not a bad joke, and they may even come with software that has been compiled from lines of code hunted here and there, and there is no chance of updating or at least updating it over time. close security vulnerabilities.

Covering the cameras of tablets, phones and laptops is also a simple and inexpensive solution: universal covers are available for most models, but you can even use a sticker or a self-adhesive paper note to prevent unauthorized spying on your children.

Digital education - you can't start early enough

Responsible parents come up with the right relationship between flowers and bees at the right time, but nowadays it is important to educate the little ones about the dangers of the online world. It is commonplace for minors to generally handle digital devices better than their parents, but perhaps in 2021, mothers and fathers with young children are expected to understand at least enough to handle gadgets so that they can inform the youngest members of the family about the most important dangers and pitfalls.

This is a great way to talk to seedlings about topics like online bullying, such as cyberbullying, microtransaction solutions embedded in various games - which can be especially dangerous when kids are pushing games on their mom™s dad™s phone - but it is also worth teaching the little ones to recognize fraudulent phishing websites. It is also worth talking about the phenomenon of false news, for which the Idea Foundation provides super tools, which primarily offer content to teachers, but it is also worthwhile for responsible parents to browse online curricula on how to deal with trolls or hide hidden advertisements. Starting from here, you can work together to create a kind of family security protocol, after which even the little ones can surf the net safely. For example, discuss always asking you not to go into certain apps using adult tools before clicking a link, and more importantly - and unfortunately many parents don™t care - for children under the age of 13 not to register their own users. account on Facebook, Instagram, or even YouTube because you never know when you™ll see content that you wouldn™t necessarily show them.

At the same time, grandparents should be educated about the dangers of the online world, which can hit two birds with one stone: on the one hand, they can browse the Internet more securely - many online scams, are less IT-savvy you travel to the elderly - and on the other hand, you can rest easy even when Grandpa and Grandpa are taking care of your kids.