Internet Safety Tips for Kids & Must-Have Rules for Every Parent in 2024

The internet can be a scary place. With every click, there’s a high risk that kids can encounter malicious content, online predators, or cybersecurity attacks.

You may want to prohibit your child from going online until they’re much older. But rest assured, there’s a variety of different internet safety tips for kids to ensure that your child stays safe when browsing the web.

In this article, we’re going to discuss the must have rules for every parent when it comes to internet safety for kids in 2024. 

Contents

• Quick List of Internet Safety Tips for Kids
• Top 9 Internet Safety Rules for Parents
• Online Protection Tools
• Kids & Social Media
• The Internet & Teens
• Internet Safety Laws
• Your Child & Internet Safety: The Bottom Line

Quick List of Internet Safety Tips for Kids

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Kids need guidance when it comes to the internet. So check out this quick list of internet safety tips to help kids interact with the online world.

Hold On to Personal Info

Parents should protect their child’s personal information, even when signing in to complete an online activity or school assignments. Using personal information can make tracking or finding people offline easy, which is especially dangerous for kids!

Keep the following from appearing online in a username, password, or elsewhere.

• Full name (first and last)
• Birth date
• Phone number
• Social Security Number
• Home address

Never Trust Strangers on the Internet

Online predators or internet predators spend time online too, and these people know how to stay hidden. Exploited children suffer from trusting strangers on the internet. Look at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for further proof.

Create and Use Complex Passwords

The most common passwords in the U.S. are ‘password’ and ‘123456’. Teach kids how to create long, complex passwords to keep accounts safe and secure.

Be Kind

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The internet is full of all kinds of people. Unfortunately, online bullying makes up some of the most cruel treatment of children, and it’s worse than being bullied at school because the Internet’s accessible 24/7. Make sure kids understand how to behave online and treat others with kindness.

Get a Parent’s Permission

Teaching Internet safety tips to kids also includes getting a parent’s permission to download or view social media accounts or meet up with an online friend in real life. Parents must know how their kids spend time online, use parental controls, and establish good rules as part of the family’s Internet safety tips.

Speak Up!

Talk to a trusted adult if something doesn’t feel right about a secure website or someone you’ve met online. Speak up to stop online predators and protect children. If necessary, law enforcement officials can get involved to help decrease online risks.

Uploads and Posts Matter

Anything that kids and adults upload onto the internet stays there forever. It’s crucial to ensure kids understand removing the inappropriate content is impossible if they decide to upload a photo or make a rude comment on an online gaming community site. This applies to social media platforms, school accounts, online video sites, and more.

Don’t Respond

Teach children to walk away if approached online by a bully or stranger. When a child experiences bad activity or something that makes them feel uncomfortable, they must report it to an adult immediately—without responding. The adult can report and block the user.

Top 9 Internet Safety Rules for Parents

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Here’s a list of cyber safety tips that you can use to further ensure your child’s staying safe on the internet.

Educate Your Child On The Risks Of Internet Use

This point is crucial. As much as you need to educate yourself on the topic of internet safety for children, it’s also just as important to teach your kids how to stay safe online.

Be sure to discuss with them all the topics in this article—online predators, cybercriminals, malware, cyberbullying.

Just like you’d teach your child how to cross the street or to not speak to strangers, you must explain how the internet—if used incorrectly—can be an unsafe place.

Encourage Them To Talk

Encouraging an open discussion between yourself and your child—about internet safety—is extremely important.

If your child has any concerns whilst using the internet, they need to know that they can come to you and explain their issues.

If your child is the victim of cyberbullying, you need to let them know that they can come to you for advice and support.

Use Parental Controls

Parental controls are an awesome way to ensure your child isn’t accessing malicious content or websites that you don’t deem fit for them to use—including social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter.

The controls are simple to use. For example, Google Chrome’s built-in parental controls will enable you to type in the websites that you want to prohibit your child from visiting—take YouTube.com, as anfor example. If your child tries to access this site whilst using the internet, they are stopped immediately.

Setting Time Limits

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It seems that everyone is constantly using the internet. Although it can be a great tool for kids—especially in terms of educational resources and entertainment—it can seriously hinder your child’s behaviour if used extensively.

This is why it’s important to set time parameters that ensure your child isn’t overusing their digital device. Instead, spendingthey spend more time to interactinteracting with the world, their family, and their friends.

Setting Strong Passwords

It’s important for your child to know that a strong password can improve their security when using the internet.

When they’re signing up to specific websites, encourage them to create memorable—yet complex—passwords that will help to mitigate any risks of having their online accounts hacked.

Use The Best Internet Security Tools

As discussed previously, there’s a wide range of different security tools that will improve your child’s safety when they use the internet.

Using tools such as VPNs and antivirus software, you can be sure that your children will be blocked from harmful malware and the risks posed by cybercriminals—who intendedintend to steal your child’s data for malicious purposes.

Teach Online ‘Stranger Danger’

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The age-old saying ‘stranger danger’ still applies in the internet age.

Be sure to teach your child that it is never safe to meet up with people who they’ve met online—reinforce the principle that strangers online can be and most likely are dangerous.

Online Scams

Many people, including children, can fall victim to seemingly innocent pop-ups and spam messages that have been developed by cybercriminals.

These pop-ups and spam messages can be very malicious—potentially giving your child’s device a computer virus.

Show your child the warning signs to look out for so they know to avoid them when they appear on the internet.

Always Supervise & Teach Internet Safety

Your child shouldn’t be browsing the world wide web on their own—especially if they’re young.

When your child wants to use the internet, be sure to sit with them while they use it. You can use this time to see what activities they get up to when using the internet and you can act as their guide—educating them on how to be safe online.

Related: How to Turn off Internet Access at Night?

Online Protection Tools

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There is a huge range of tools that you can use when looking to protect the safety of your children whilst they use the internet.

Tools such as antivirus software, VPNs, and parental control apps will enable you to safeguard your children from the threats of internet use and will also give you the ability to monitor their activity online—ensuring that they’re using the internet sensibly.

Antivirus Software

You may be leaving your child’s device at risk if you’re not using reliable antivirus software.

These programs are designed to block cyber criminals from attempting to hack any digital devices—laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc.

There’s a huge range of antivirus software that comes equipped with the tools to protect your child from the threats posed by cybercriminals. Some of the major antivirus software providers to consider include:

• Heimdal
• McAfee
• Norton
• Avira
• AVG
• Malwarebytes

The majority of antivirus software platforms will provide efficient tools that will block your child from accessing malicious sites that contain malware. Heimdal’s DarkGuard immediately blocks connections with known malware sources and potentially unsafe websites that could compromise your child’s personal data.

VPNs

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Okay, so what’s a VPN? In simple terms, a VPN—which stands for ‘Virtual Private Network’—is a way for you to establish a secure connection online whilst using a potentially insecure network.

VPNs enable you to use the internet without the risk of cyber criminals being able to target your network’s location—potentially using this information to perform a cyberattack.

Some great VPN companies that you should consider include:

• NordVPN
• Cyberghost
• PureVPN

Many of the previously mentioned, antivirusmentioned antivirus software can come with awesome VPN functions built-in—so you can enjoy full protection, safeguarding your computer from malware whilst protecting your child from the threats of cybercriminals.

Parental Control Apps

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Parental control apps are an amazing way to monitor your child’s online activity. Using these platforms, you can see what websites your child has visited, the content they’ve watched, or applications they’ve been using.

Using parental controls are key for any parents looking to ensure their child safety and wellbeing in the internet age.

Some of the best parental control apps include:

• Findmykids
• Kids360
• Net Nanny
• Qustodio
• Google Chrome’s native parental controls

Using these apps, you’ll also be able to limit the amount of time your child is spending on the internet—meaning they’ll have more time to spend interacting with friends and family.

You’ll also be able to block specific websites before your child accesses them—including gaming sites and pornographic content.

Kids & Social Media

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Social media is without a doubt one of the most revolutionary technologies of the 21st century.

Social media networks—such as Facebook—have billions of users worldwide. They can prove to be a great tool for enhancing social interaction, creating online communities, and promoting businesses.

However, when it comes to children using social media—especially if they’re new to the technology—there can be some major pitfalls that you must be aware of.

Issues With Social Media

As discussed previously, cyberbullying is rife in this internet age. With reports of cyberbullying on the rise, you need to be aware that your child could be at risk of being psychologically abused online.

The potential for your child to be targeted by online predators is also massively increased when they’re introduced to social media. Online predators often use social media profiles to disguise themselves as children who are similar ages to your child—something that you must make your child aware of when they begin to use social media networks.

Teaching your child tips to stay safe online is important—this is especially the case when it comes to social media.

Age Restrictions

You may want to determine the age that you’ll allow your child access to social media. Most social networks will not allow children under the age of 13 to create an account or to access the platform.

You may want to wait until your child reaches a certain level of maturity before they’re allowed to use social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter.

Monitor Your Child’s Activity

When your child is using social media, you may want to monitor their activity—check what information they’re posting online, who they’re talking to, what content they’re engaging with, etc.

To do this, you can use parental control apps—such as the Findmykids app—to see their actions on social media sites and applications.

The Internet & Teens

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When children reach a certain age—namely when they hit their teenage years—they may have different interests that could conflict with the internet safety rules you’d like them to follow.

In their teenage years, children may want to become more independent. However, granting them the freedom to fully explore the internet may prove to be a challenge for you.

Teenagers may want to expose themselves to many forms of content that are deemed inappropriate—violent video online, aggressive online games, 18+ (R) rated content, pornographic images, etc.

Although granting your child the freedom to explore, you may still want to keep certain provisions in place to ensure they’re not overexposed to content that you’re not comfortable with them viewing.

In this instance, you can still apply the range of tools we’ve discussed previously—most notably the parental control apps and functions. This will give you peace of mind to give your teenage child the privacy they desire whilst using the internet, with the fear of them accessing malicious content online.

Internet Safety Laws

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Now technology is at almost everyone’s fingertips, governments are now taking cybersafety seriously to ensure that all people—including children—stay safe when using the world wide web.

Internet safety laws can differ slightly between countries, but they all aim to combat similar issues.

Online safety laws in the United States, such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), is designed to protect children under the age of 13 from having their personal information exposed online.

This law must be used by websites—especially social networks like Facebook and Instagram. These sites adhere to these laws by clearing stating that children under 13 are not allowed to register an account on the platform.

One of the main reasons for these laws is so young children—who can be left vulnerable when exploring online—can’t be harassed or groomed by online predators.

The legislation is now being put in place in the UK which states that website, including social networks, must carry out a statutory ‘duty of care’ to ensure the safety of all their users whilst accessing their platform.

Your Child & Internet Safety: The Bottom Line

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Many risks come with using the internet—especially when you grant your child permission to use it.

However, there are many internet safety tips you can use (VPNs, parental controls, antivirus software) and provisions you can put in place—such as time restrictions—to ensure your child is staying safe online.

To find out more on how to be an awesome parent in the digital age, check out the latest post on our blog.