The Digital Age Babysitters

In the digital age, many parents turn to the latest electronic gadget to babysit their children so the parents can have a little peace and quiet. These electronic gadgets such as laptops, iPads, smartphones or gaming consoles have access to the Internet. These electronic gadgets are not the best babysitter since children can wonder off in the Internet world and start talking with a stranger right in the child’s home.

Knowing this, protecting your child from online predators can feel like a full time job these days. With the abundant amount of younger children using the Internet as a learning tool and entertainment, parents need to stay on top of what their children are looking at and where their children are surfing when on the Internet.  

Online predators make it their full time job to lure children and work on disguising who they are online. Online predators can get children’s information from many sources on the Internet such as from a friend’s invitation to a pop-up contest to win great prizes. Children need to be taught to be wary of online strangers and skeptical of things they encounter online. Also the most important lesson is to talk to their parents when something just doesn’t feel right.

Here are some quick tips to protect your children from online predators:

• Use generic non-gender nicknames for children
• Don’t put your children’s age, birth year or address online
• Create and use strong passwords for all your children’s online activities
• Don’t share your child’s email address in any school or sports directory
• Subscribe to a parenting monitoring software for that can block applications and websites, such as My Mobile Watchdog