Last Updated on August 11, 2024 by Asfa Rasheed
Technology has many benefits for children. Not only can it help them stay connected to friends and family, but it can also be educational. Because of that, you’re likely to introduce your kids to tech sooner or later. The only problem is that technology can also be dangerous for kids. In this article, you’ll learn about four ways to keep tabs on your child for their safety.
As a parent, you want to make sure your kids are safe both offline and on. Fortunately, there are many ways you can go about protecting your children. From purchasing kid-friendly devices to using parental controls, here’s how you can keep tabs on your child:
Table of Contents
1. Use a GPS Tracker
As a parent, you want to keep your children safe. But you also want to teach them to become independent individuals. Thankfully there are GPS trackers for kids that do just that. Better yet, many come in the form of devices your kids will actually want, such as phones, smartwatches, and iPads.
What’s nice about these tech devices is they don’t just help you keep track of your children, they have additional functions. For example, you could purchase a kid-friendly watch that can keep track of your kids and also encourage them to be active.
A World Health Organization study found that children aren’t engaging in enough movement to stay healthy. In fact, 80% of 11- to 17-year-olds aren’t sufficiently physically active. A watch that works as a step tracker could inspire your kids to get moving, especially if you offer incentives.
Consider rewarding your children for reaching a specific amount of steps a day. You could give them an extra 30 minutes of TV time or let them have friends sleep over on the weekend. Rewarding your kids for being active can help them live healthier lives. And since you can track their whereabouts, you’ll always know where they are.
2. Monitor Their Messages
While technology offers many benefits, there are also drawbacks. One is how easy it is to communicate with another person. You might be thinking, “Isn’t that a good thing?” It should be, true, but it’s also led to a phenomenon known as cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is bullying, or harassment, that takes place via text messages, phone calls, and social media. With 95% of U.S. teens online, there are plenty of targets for cyberbullies. In fact, almost 40% of children between 12 and 17 have been bullied online. A good way to keep your kids safe from cyberbullying is by monitoring their online communications.
There are several apps available to help you stay on top of whom your children are talking to. Some work in the background of your kids’ devices, scanning their messages and emails. They can even monitor the pictures and videos your children take and receive. Using such software, you can also block certain websites, callers, and apps on your children’s devices. Read more about all the features here.
In addition to monitoring their activity, make sure to talk to your kids about cyberbullying. It’s important they know how to identify and deal with it. Let’s face it — there will come a time when you won’t be able to surveil your kids’ every action. It’s important to teach them how to act on their devices, so they’re prepared for the future.
3. Set Screen Limits
Spending too much time online has been linked to various health problems, both physical and mental. Children are especially at risk because they’re still developing and don’t always have the maturity or experience to make good decisions. As a parent, it’s your responsibility to discuss the importance of screen limits with your kids. It’s also up to you to put rules in place to manage how much time they spend online.
There are several ways you can go about overseeing your children’s screen time. One way is through the use of parental controls. At least a dozen different apps will let you remotely monitor the amount of time your children spend on a device. Whether they’re texting or scrolling social media, with these tech aids, you won’t have to worry about your kids logging too much screen time.
Besides setting daily limits, such apps also let parents see which apps/programs their kids use the most. They can assign tasks, instantly pause their children’s devices, and more. Having this software can both bring you peace of mind and help your kids adopt healthy tech habits.
4. Manage Social Media Activity
It’s no secret social media has become a significant part of people’s lives. And while you can’t keep your kids off social media forever, you can keep them safe by overseeing their activities. Lucky for busy parents, a number of apps can monitor children’s doings on social media.
Once set up, such software can track activity on a range of social media platforms, in addition to text messages and emails. In real time, you can see what platforms your children are accessing via a clear, convenient dashboard. Keystroke monitoring will tip you off to any concerning private messages sent through these channels.
Not only can you keep an eye on what your kids are doing, but you can limit their access to certain sites. For example, let’s say you don’t want your children to view news outlets like Fox. You can block that.
Technology can be a scary place for kids. That’s why it’s important to do what you can to protect your children online. By integrating the tips and devices above, you can feel better about the time your kids spend on their devices.
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