7 Ways to Protect Your Child from Internet Hazards

Many parents mistakenly believe that children who spend most of their time at home are out of danger. Unfortunately, they’re absolutely mistaken, because the Internet has become one of the biggest hazards of a modern humanity.

Websites are full of shady and immoral content, consisting of violence, pornography, advertisements, hatred, deceit and other dangerous things. Unlike adults, small kids just absorb this information. They don’t know how to resist various temptations, false teachings and negativity.

Many small users of social networking websites often become the victims of cyber bullying. Have you ever heard something about cyber attacks? Today people can easily offend, humble and intimidate each other, using electronic technologies. Adults realize that cyber bullying isn’t dangerous and serious thing, because in most cases it doesn’t threaten physical safety. Cyber bullying is the choice of mentally weak, but cunning people who want to destabilize the emotional well-being and damage the self-esteem of certain or random personalities. Children tend to take everything too seriously and believe that threatening words will turn into reality in a quite short period of time.

In my opinion, during the pre-adolescent and adolescent periods parents should help their kids get acquainted with the Internet and teach them to use its resources responsibly and safely. Read on to discover how to do it.

1. Lay down rules

This is the most important step to start from, because you’re a parent. Every family has its standards, traditions and parents have the right to make rules. These rules usually help all family members get along better and protect them from different dangers.

When making rules, do it carefully. Too much control can urge children to go underground or even turn them into revolutionists. Both adults and children know that forbidden fruit is always sweet. If you don’t want this trouble to happen, try to accustom kids to the rules using an authoritative approach instead of authoritarian one.

In case you children say that they forget about some rules, you should create an effective reminder. Make a list of your rules, then type and put it in front of the computer for children to see and remember what they can do and what is strictly forbidden. But it won’t work, if your child has a modern smartphone or other electronic gadgets that can easily connect to the Internet.

Generally, children shouldn’t have access to the Internet until they become teenagers. If you think that they’re crucially important to both kids and adults, then your children should enjoy the Internet under your strict control for the sake of their emotional well-being.