Why you should use parental control software
Have you ever deemed Internet dangerous to your children? If you haven’t, you probably should since every new day brings about many concerns about protecting online identity and avoiding falling victim to multiple online predators.
The latter are people with impure intentions who may target your kids using Internet, modern technical devices like smartphones and tablets, or even stalk them in real life forcing various sexual advances. Modern teenagers have multiple ways to access web portals, and parents may not be able to control all of them which is the reason why they should take appropriate measures to curb the real dangers and be cautious about what their children do online.
Since there are many perils our kids are vulnerable to, exercising parental control appears to be of utmost importance. Those strangers may approach teenagers in social media, contact them in chat rooms, send anonymous emails, texts, or instant messages. As soon as they are successful in building a communication channel with a child, they try to pretend kids’ best friends. Here are a couple of strategies they use:
- They can listen. They do not interrupt, do not instill their will; they sympathize and feel sorry.
- They show interest in child’s hobbies and offer to accompany them in activities they prefer the most.
- They usually pretend to be kind and attentive. Such people have too much spare time they can spend and “dedicate” to a probable victim.
- With time they begin to share photos and other inappropriate content.
So what is the first step to take if you want to protect your children from such types of dangers. Above everything else, you need to talk to your kids. They deserve to know all the dangers which may result from talking with strangers online. Besides, monitoring all chats and emails might be prudent parental control solution for your family. In case you find anything suspicious or explicitly inappropriate in your children’s communication with someone you do not know, you might want to take it to another level and contact local police to proceed with the investigation.
Modern Western world has a lot to learn from Eastern countries in terms of how parental control should be exercised. In America, parents have to rely on themselves in an attempt to fight cyber dangers like online bullying, strangers, explicit content, etc. However, children’s protection is an essential issue in Japan and South Korea where this question has been on a roll at the government level. The country leaders highly appreciate the effectiveness of applications aimed at facilitating parental control. Not only they block the access to the inappropriate web pages online, they also keep track of messaging and emails, etc. All cell phones that are owned by kids under 18 years have to include such applications in their basic software package. Besides, national schools also support the initiative and encourage parents to have necessary apps installed on the teenagers’ smartphones.
Although couples have a choice to opt out of using such software, parental control apps steadily gain popularity since they offer multiple useful features like checking browsing history of the target device, manage other programs installed or deleted on the phone, GPS location among other activities.
Another important application to similar software is scanning of the child’s correspondence in social media. The software can be set up in such a way that it sends you alerts and notifications whenever your child types in a word from a custom list you have entered. For example, it is important that you know if your children talk with their friends about “ending life”, “bullying”, “suicide”, or other disturbing things.
Remember to prioritize protecting your children! Your attention to the details is the main factor of keeping your kids safe!
