Check yourself: 5 misconceptions about parental controls in gadgets
'01.05.2020'
Source: Letidor
To teach children to use the Internet, while maintaining a safe digital space around them is a duty and at the same time a headache for all moms and dads. Finding the right way to control a child on the Internet is quite difficult. To help you with this task, "Letidor" asked the expert on child safety on the Internet, Maria Nasmestnikova, to tell what misconceptions families face regarding the use of parental control programs in gadgets and how to overcome them - for the benefit of themselves and the child.
Parental control programs deprive the child of personal space on the Web
It seems that everyone knows how to raise children offline. This, of course, is not an easy task, but our parents, teachers, educators have given us many good examples of how this can be done and how completely impossible.
The situation is different with online.
A generation of modern parents had to comprehend the Internet on their own, so there are no ready-made models for teaching children how to use the network in genetic memory.
There are families who perceive the Internet as a hybrid of a phone and a TV.
Head we all (I hope) already understand that this is not so, but most fail to realize this understanding in practice.
Therefore, everyone continues to use the device as a source of cartoons to distract the baby, and perceive special security programs as something like eavesdropping on telephone conversations.
But this is a mistake.
Modern problems require modern solutions.
Today, children need an advanced approach to education. Their participation in the digital community is an important part of life. Therefore, they need to be educated and protected in this area no less than in what we are used to calling real life. And education in this matter does not mean shouts like “Put the gadget, you’ve been sitting for the third hour on the phone.”
Parental controls replace parenting
On the one hand, it seems that the program solves all pressing problems: the child doesn’t look at indecent sites, he doesn’t look for dangerous pages, he doesn’t install unsuitable programs, what more could you want.
But it is not.
That is, she really carries out all of the above tasks, but having set it, the family still cannot 100% protect children from risks in the digital space.
What's the matter?
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Often parents at different meetings ask the same question:
“What if I installed this program, and the child goes and the friend sees everything he needs?”
We want to emphasize that programs do not replace the upbringing of a child and teaching him adequate behavior in a digital environment.
If mom and dad installed the program without special explanations and approvals and think that they have decided everything, then here the well-known stories about children bypassing access codes, using other people's smartphones and so on begin.
The parental control program for a child savvy in using the Web is not needed
This is an opinion that parents often express at various meetings. It comes from moms and dads who are just thoroughly engaged in raising their children, explain to them everything they know themselves, learn to use the Internet and various applications.
They are great fellows. And they believe that their children do not need special programs.
And again a mistake.
The program for children's online safety will protect not only from deliberate actions, but also from accidental transitions to sites with non-childish content (it’s worth recalling the Elsagate scandal when YouTube found a large number of cartoons drawn in a familiar style, but containing far non-childish content: scenes of violence, abductions, sexual deviations, etc.).
Adults can not always sit next to the child at the device and in which case close his eyes with his palm.
With this simple task, special software (software) will cope just better than a person.
Parental control program is needed to monitor the child quietly
We are often asked with a question, and sometimes with a request: “Is it possible to make the control program set up invisibly for the child?” or "Will it be possible to read the child’s messages on social networks?"
For some reason, some families believe that the parental control program is a way to quietly monitor a child.
Stop, and this is a mistake!
The parental control program is always visible, it does not hide its presence. Its task is to protect against inappropriate content of programs or pages, to inform in time about the appearance of dangerous interests. Such programs do not transmit personal correspondence of children in social networks or in instant messengers and do not send any notifications in a mode hidden from the child.
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When you install a parental control program, do not try to look for one that promises an inconspicuous installation.
Such programs are related to stalker software, the developers of which do not care about user safety at all. By downloading this software, you will transfer all the information about the child, and possibly about yourself to “third parties”.
The parental control program must be installed strictly at a certain age
This is partly true. But this age is not at all what many parents imagine. Most people think about such a program when children turn 10-11 years old.
And yet this is a mistake.
It is best to install a child safety program on your very first baby device.
It doesn’t matter at what age he gets it - at five, six or nine years old - the main thing is that before that he does not have his own gadget. Indeed, if a child uses the device, for example, from the age of five, and you suddenly decide to install the program when he is ten, it will cause a lot of logical and legitimate questions on his part, and it will be much more difficult for you to answer them.
