Gone are the days when you would consider internet a safe place to be. It is certainly not, especially for the young children – preteens and teens. Abundant of online risks are lurking on the internet ranging from cyberbullying to children seeing inappropriate content to being contacted by strangers to being attacked by pedophiles. The list of online risks continues to grow as more children have started using the internet.

To prevent your teens from the online perils, you should know and follow some important internet safety tips so that your teens can experience a safe internet zone.

Here are some internet safety tips for parents to follow:

Communicate with Your Teens

One of the most significant ways of keeping your teens safe online is making sure they know they can always come to talk to you if they’re facing any troubles on the internet. They should come and talk to you without any hesitation if they’re worried about something happening on the internet. You should initiate conversations with your teens and ask them what websites they’re visiting, whom they’re talking to, or what games they’re playing online. This way you can more insight into their digital lives. Build a comfortable environment around your teens so they can always approach you without any judgment.

Install Parental Controls

Parental controls are online tools and software which can be installed on electronic devices – smartphones, tablets, computers, and gaming consoles. With the help of parental controls, you can block or filter the content or the websites you do not want your teen to see when he/she is using the internet. You can also keep a track of their messages, calls, and also track their locations. Parental controls also let you to set time schedules so your teen can use the internet for a specific amount of time. Parents can have these tools installed on their teen’s device to keep them safe from the online dangers.

Stay Alert and Tech Savvy

It’s easier to set up parental controls on your child’s devices but that’s not where the job ends. You must also know how to make a use of them and have all the information about your child’s online activity. Parents in this age need to be tech savvy if they want to keep an eye on their child’s activity. Most of the gaming consoles also allow access to the internet browsers, therefore you need to make sure your child is not viewing the inappropriate material or talking to strangers on the internet while playing games.

Turn on Privacy for Social Media

Make sure your teens have turned on privacy settings on their social media because that’s the only way to stop strangers from contacting them and seeing what they’re doing online. All the social media websites including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, etc. offer privacy features which help keep your teens from the possible online dangers.