Tips to protect children who use the Internet at home

New technologies have become a crucial tool in our lives. People of all ages used routinely and network devices such as smartphones, tablets and computers. Nevertheless, this union with the technologies is even more evident in the case of younger children, who have grown up surrounded by technology. This familiarity can lead to not be aware of the dangers that lurk behind tools like social networks or mobile. Bring you a series of tips for younger household use new technologies safely.

As explained from the Internet User Security Office (part of INTECO), a series of simple and common sense that parents can take to educate their children and avoid serious trouble. First, we suggest that the PC is located in a common area of the house, and access to it by children should be limited in time. It is also crucial to have protection as antivirus programs and firewalls to prevent any incursion outside the PC.

In the email, most of the services has an age limit that requires users to have entered adolescence. One of the keys to the safe use of this medium is to convince young people to use different email accounts for the field staff (friends, school) than for other uses such as online games or forums. Thus, minimizing the dangers accounts of theft or cyberbullying. Another advice in this area is not open to the messages from strangers as they may contain viruses. The same goes for attachments.

One of the tools most commonly used by young people today are social networks. The first measure to be considered is that of setting privacy levels to prevent everyone to see personal data about youth. Even it is recommended not to use the name or the actual photo, although this is more difficult to follow (the end of the day, many teens use this medium to interact with friends and classmates). What is highly recommended is always to act prudently to new contacts and especially with strangers.

Also be careful when uploading photos or information compromised. All children need to be aware that it is very difficult to remove information that is uploaded to the network. You never know for certain where it will end. Moreover, when you download content from the network or when sharing files is important to be careful, as it is one of the means by which your computer can end up infected with a virus.

In the field of mobile phones is not recommended to give the number to strangers or share the number through social networks. Course, is not a good practice to send sexual content through this medium. One of the most vulnerable technology that uses Bluetooth mobile is therefore recommended to have it off when we are not using. All of these tips have to be completed giving confidence to young people so they can share any problem with adults. Sometimes this confidence only serves to address a problem like cyberbullying before it causes serious damage.