How to Keep Your Kids Safe Online

When it comes to summer break, you prepare your kids with all the outdoor safety rules: Wear a hat, never swim unsupervised, look both ways before crossing the road, don't forget your helmet – the list goes on. But what about their online safety? Chances are, they’re spending just as much time socializing with their friends online as they do outside, and there is most certainly a lot they need to learn about staying safe there.

So, if you haven’t had that safety talk with them yet, it’s never too late, and we’ve got the tips to get you started:  

How to protect their privacy online  

First, it’s important that they protect their privacy online, both to avoid getting hacked or having their accounts taken over, and to protect themselves from strangers online. You can help them with the following settings:  

• Set their profiles to private. If they have access to any social media accounts, make sure that their profiles are set to private and are not publicly shared or accessible. You can also monitor who’s following their profiles to ensure that only friends and family have access to their posts.  

• Monitor the permissions settings of the apps they have installed. More specifically, you can disable ad tracking across different apps to ensure that they’re not being bombarded with ads for products or services you may not want them having access to (or worse – nagging you about them all summer).  

Online safety do's and don'ts

Other than phone settings, you also need to teach kids about the do's and don’ts of online safety, such as:  

• Not sharing their address, phone number, or location online. This is also important when uploading posts or stories on social media — they can mention vague or broad locations, but nothing specific.  

• Not talking privately to anyone they don’t know online and reporting such messages to you if they get them.  

• Not clicking on any links sent to them over text or email. Avoiding phishing scams is hard enough for those of us who have been online for years — teaching about them is one of the most valuable lessons new online users can learn. You can walk them through common phishing scams, and how to spot them.  

• Be aware of what apps they install and upload their photos to. In the past few years, photo editing and AI-generation have blown up, but they can also lead to the use of their likeness or the generation of deepfakes. Only allow apps and tools you trust and can set appropriate permissions on.  

How to monitor kids' online activity 

You can equip them with all the knowledge and skills, but if having some more concrete boundaries in place will help you sleep better at night, there are apps for that:  

1. Bark  
   This comprehensive parental control app lets you monitor kids' online activities across their social media apps, messaging apps, web browsing, and more. It can also track their location, block certain websites, and send you alerts.  
   Only disadvantage is that it’s not a free option, with the lowest tier subscription starting at $5/month for Bark Jr.  
2. Qustodio  
   Similarly, this app can also monitor web and app usage, track location, and help you set time limits if you’re looking to limit screen time in general. The Basic plan runs $59.95/year, but to get the messaging and calls monitoring, you’d have to opt for the more expensive $109.95 Complete plan.  
3. Google Family Link (Android) and Apple Screen Time (iOS) 
   If you’re looking to have a more passive role in their online activity monitoring, you can also use Google’s and Apple’s built-in parental control settings to limit screen time, track location, set app limitations or approvals (such as requiring a password to install certain apps), and even set bedtime settings (so they can’t scroll their phone past a certain time of day). And BIG pro: These are free (our favorite word).  

A safe summer is the best kind of summer, and just because they're online doesn't mean they can't enjoy it without your peace of mind.