Secure Online Families | Part 8: Comprehensive Solutions

This is the 8th article in a 9-part series | Keeping our children safe is a high priority for most parents and guardians, and this increasingly includes online security.

Here, we discuss some things you can do to help your kids with all of the risks discussed in this series

The most important and effective solutions to all of these risks are to:

1. Create and maintain relationships of trust with your children
2. Make your home a safe place for your children to ask questions

The absence of tech-based solutions may come as a surprise to some readers. One reason tech-based solutions like filters aren’t listed here is that, while filters and parental restrictions are important, no matter what parents do:

• Undesirable content will find a way to get through filters
• Your kids will use WiFi networks you don’t control
• Friends could send messages with undesirable content
• Filters don’t do a good job filtering text messages and apps (like Snapchat)

Additionally, children will eventually have to navigate the online world with either partial or full independence from their parents. So, it’s important to build relationships of trust and answer our children’s questions so that when difficult issues arise, they’ll feel comfortable and safe talking to us about the challenges they’re facing.

The Series:

• Part 1: Introduction (Dec 18th)
• Part 2: Cyber Bullying (Dec 18th)
• Part 3: Social Media (Dec 26th)
• Part 4: Anonymity (Jan 2nd)
• Part 5: False Information (Jan 8th)
• Part 6: Violent Media (Jan 15th)
• Part 7: Sex/Pornography (Jan 22nd)
• Part 8: Comprehensive Solutions (Jan 29th)
• Part 9: Conclusion & Additional Resources (Feb 5th)

My Credentials

I work in InfoSec and have published a couple of academic articles while finishing my masters degree.

You can view all of my credentials here and here.

[This story has been adapted to article format from my site securefamilies.org]