Parental controls are useful tools that can help you keep your children safe while using digital technology. They can assist parents to manage their children’s use of smartphones, tablets, laptops, gaming consoles, and other connected devices. Parental controls help enable parents protect their children from potential online risks and harmful behavior, including online bullying, predators, pornography, compulsive gaming, or inappropriate use of technology.
Each parental control tool offers different features, but some of the most common include:
Type 1: Privacy settings
Privacy settings are built into the social media or gaming platforms by the developers and can be managed by users through the app’s settings. Here are links to some of the most popular apps privacy and control settings that allow parents visibility and control over what their kids see and do. For example:
We also recommend turning on the following internet search filters to prevent your child from accessing inappropriate content, or websites with inappropriate content. Ad blockers also prevent inappropriate content from “popping up” on your child’s screen.
These are really easy steps you can take to help protect your child online. Unfortunately, no filter is ever 100% foolproof however, it does go a long way to support your child in having positive experiences while online, and reducing the chances they will come across harmful content.
Type 2: Device Controls
Device controls are about protecting the device itself. They can be installed on a smartphone, laptop or tablet and these settings remain in place both inside and outside the home.
Type 3: Paid Parental Controls (optional)
Parental controls are sophisticated software that helps filter and control what the device can access online. These provide safer options for children using devices connected to the internet.
Understanding that young people living with a disability are more at risk and vulnerable online means that parental controls are an incredibly important piece of the online safety puzzle for them.
The benefits of parental controls:
Unfortunately setting up parental controls is not a set and forget option for parents. Your child will still require parental supervision to help understand what they are experiencing online and guide them to become responsible and resilient digital citizens.
However, with parental controls in place parents have a far greater opportunity to prevent incidents, rather than responding and reacting to incidents that our children might experience.
Prevention is key and the preferred option in protecting digital health and wellbeing of young people living with a disability.
This Online Safety Training is a joint initiative between Interaction and ySafe and has been made possible by funding from the eSafety Commissioner's Online Safety Grants program.