Educating children on the Internet
Although I live far away from Spain (my country of origin), I consider myself fortunate for living in an era where the Internet makes it so easy to keep in touch with friends and family. Chats, video calls, e-mails, social applications, etc. are fairly straight forward to set up and, in most cases, there is always option to free account creations. So far so good.
When I was a kid, I never heard the term ´Internet´ (actually, I don´t think I heard of it until I was in my teens) so my parents didn´t have to warn me not to talk to strangers on chats, not to upload all sort of pictures of myself on social networks and not to say too much about me on the Internet. They did warn me about talking to strangers in the street though, because certain strangers could be mean to kids. By no means they stopped me going out. Their “warning” about strangers helped me learn at a very early age that I simply had to be careful.
Nowadays children hear of the Internet all the time, more than what parents would like to. In a way, the Internet streets are like any street in the real world and for this reason parents need to educate children on how to use it safely.
It is clear that if we ban the Internet at home, kids will find a way of accessing it from somewhere else (at a friend´s house, in a cyber-cafe, etc.). What we can do is teaching them how to use it sensibly so that they can be safe.
Here are some tips to help kids give their first steps on the Internet:
- Avoid putting the computer in the kids´ room, where nobody can control when they are using the Internet and for how long. Instead, place the computer in a room in everybody´s sight (this is commonly the living room). Not long ago, my seven-year-old niece found out that ´if you type anything in that white box (Google) and press enter, you have access to lots of things´. This is one of the many reasons why the always-in-sight option is the best.
- If your kids´ have got e-mail accounts, make sure you know the login details and make them aware of this. Remember that you are not spying on them, you are protecting them. Another option is to set up a redirect to your e-mail account. This means that you would be receiving all the emails they send out or receive (this is important, particularly when they are so young).
- Talk to your kids often about the websites they are interested in and find out how suitable they really are for them. There´s normally a minimum age allowed to be able to set up an account on social networks (14 on My Space, 13 on Facebook, etc.).
For more useful tips on how to keep your kids safe, visit the BBC.co.uk.
