“Along with running water, electricity and transportation, the Internet is now a fundamental fact of modern life”, says Danah Boyd. There are no boundaries in the digital age. And safeguarding our children amidst the everyday evolving technology is a great challenge.

There’s no doubt that the Internet has improvised every aspect of our lives by providing any information on our fingertips. The internet amplifies and augments everything to such an extent that children find it hard to fend off its influence. Children have become smarter in the digital age. But just because they know how to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, doesn’t mean they know how to use technology to improve their learning experience. 

Check out what Kevin Honeycutt, National Educational Technology Speaker, says about the seamy side of Internet – “Our kids are growing up on a digital playground and no one is on recess duty.” How true…! We can certainly not eliminate this digital playground from their lives but we can help them navigate through it properly. The internet undoubtedly seems to be an amusement park for children but it becomes nothing less than a house of horror for adults, when it comes to children independently surfing through it. Because of the bombardment of inappropriate content, cyberbullying and online predators…you ought to become that watchdog!

So, how to keep children safe online becomes a daunting question for parents? After all, it’s not only for educational purposes and entertainment that children use the internet but for social and family connections too. Online chats and video calling have become a part of our daily life when we want to get in touch with our family and relatives.

Well, here are some tips given by professionals from the internet security world. Check out what they have to say for providing internet safety to kids -

• Talk to your children about online activity – Tell them about the risks and rewards of surfing online. This is one advice given by almost every internet safety professional and cyber expert.
• Educate yourself with parental control – Learn about parental control on sites and apps, just like you do on your TV.
• Set some socialising rules – Tell them not to be friends with strangers but only whom they know personally. As a parent, you should be equally aware of their online friend circle and contacts.
• Teach them not every personal information should be disclosed – Make them aware of how some cyber stalkers can misuse personal shared information like – name, phone number, location, bank account details, your photos etc. And that they could end up being innocent victims.
• Children tend to follow their parent’s footprints - If children see their parents being cautious with limited screen time, they are more likely to follow you right from an early age.
• Make online time, family time – Just like you watch TV together, spend time with your kids online by searching for information or doing homework online or watching a cartoon or movie at times. Set up a time-frame and work together online. Try not to let them browse unaccompanied. Don’t forget to put the Google search filter to “safe”.
• Know the benefits of VPN – Virtual Private Networks (VPN) connects your device to an offsite secure server and uses an encrypted connection that keeps your data safe. This enables in preventing your location being tracked and protecting your family on any network. 
• Practice basic cyber hygiene – Other common yet necessary steps could be having strong passwords, installing an antivirus, updating your software.

Digital independence amidst children has become a taxing problem every parent is facing right from a child’s early age. A child’s online journey begins from nursery rhymes, to cute games, to brain games, to music, leading to chats, and then online surfing - an addiction hard to resist. One Google or Youtube search opens a host of links that might be inappropriate and unsuitable for a child. Thus, we need to make our children aware about the good, the bad, and the ugly side of the Internet. 

In our endless efforts in raising children - from kids to adults - we need to amp up our parenting skills and protect them from the digital babysitters in today’s tricky techie world. It’s time we educate them with the words of Christian Lous Lange – 

“TECHNOLOGY is a useful SERVANT but a dangerous MASTER