The 5 Minute Guide™ to Digital Parenting

Unless you’ve built a bubble to seal them from the world, children grow up surrounded by technology. Households are full of devices connected to the Internet – some shared and some personal. For our children, technology is a normal part of their everyday life. They switch between devices, applications, and social media throughout the day without even noticing. For them, “digital life” is just “life.”

Setting Boundaries

Just like in the real world, where we need to teach our children to cross the street with caution, we need to teach them to navigate in the digital world. We cannot promise that this is easy, as in most cases, our children are more open to new technologies, trends, and ways of collaborating with their friends. However, this does not remove our responsibility – we still need to keep up with them and be parents.

Here are some sample guidelines to help you in that task.

Suggested Boundaries for Kids Under 6

1. You are only allowed ____ hour(s) of screen time per day (recommendation is less than 2h)
2. Use the Internet only under adult supervision
3. Visit only the web pages agreed on with your parents
4. Do not download, install, or buy anything online without your parents
5. Immediately close web pages you don’t like
6. Use apps and play games that have been checked with your parents
7. Do not create email accounts on your own – any child under 6 does not need one
8. Social Media, chats, and forums are not for children under 6
9. Never give your name, address, phone number, email address, passwords, or school name
10. Tell an adult if something makes you uncomfortable, scared, or confused

Suggested Boundaries for Kids 6-11

1. School before fun – do your homework first. You are allowed _____ hours of screen time per day, including the time needed for your homework.
2. On school nights, television, games consoles, PC, phones and tablets are closed by the agreed time.
3. Use the Internet only under adult supervision and visit only the web sites agreed on with your parents.
4. Do not download, install, or buy anything online without your parents.
5. Tell an adult if something makes you uncomfortable, scared, or confused, and Immediately close web pages that you don’t like.
6. Create your first email account together with your parents. Your email address is personal information, so check with your parents before entering your email address to any service or giving it to anyone.
7. Do not create social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest etc. on your own.
8. Using social media needs to be agreed on with your parents, and they need to be included as your friends so that they are able to guide you in using them safely.
9. Never give your personal information to services or people. Personal information includes your name, pictures of yourself, your address, phone number, email address, passwords, school name, where you are at the moment or where you are going.
10. Behave as well online as you do in real life. No mean or rude language.

Suggested Boundaries for Kids 12-16

1. School before fun – do your homework first. You are allowed _____ hours of screen time per day, including the time needed for your homework.
2. On school nights, television, games consoles, PC, phones and tablets are closed by the agreed time.
3. Web content filtering keeps you away from nasty content on the Internet, but always remember to use the Internet wisely.
4. Tell an adult if something makes you uncomfortable, scared, or confused, and immediately close web pages that you don’t like.
5. Discuss downloading, installing, and buying things online with your parents and agree on rules for it – do not do any of these things without agreed rules.
6. Do not create social media accounts without your parents’ permission.
7. Use your accounts wisely. Include your parents as your “Friends” so that they can give you proper guidance in using the services.
8. Never accept people you don’t know as friends or otherwise respond to them.
9. Never meet someone you only know online.
10. Never give your personal information to services or people. Personal information includes your name, pictures of yourself, your address, phone number, email address, passwords, school name, where you are at the moment or where you are going.
11. Be polite when using email, texting with your phone, posting comments in social media etc..

SAFE is Designed for Digital Parenting

F-Secure SAFE has been designed for your entire household. It adapts to the different protection needs of small children, teens, and adults. You only need one security service for your family, as SAFE combines Internet security features with parental controls. Simply turn on parental control during installation and your children are automatically protected when they go online. F-Secure SAFE does not give you tools for spying on your children. Instead, we want to give you tools for parenting in the digital world regardless of your children’s ages. See what we can offer you.

SAFE Browsing for Children

The reputation of web pages is silently checked in the background while your children browse the Internet. Access to bad or restricted sites is automatically blocked. The default settings prevent access to known harmful and phishing sites, and to sites containing adult and violent content. Customize the settings to better meet your values and protection needs. Explicit content is also filtered out of the search results. PC users can also enjoy the benefits of F-Secure search. F-Secure Search shows traffic light icons in the search results to indicate which sites are OK to access and which are not.

Monitoring Device Use

Netflix or Youtube or games on a phone or console can keep kids from experiencing life. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to track of the time your children spend using various devices. F-Secure SAFE gives you the means to set time limits on using devices and apps. With these limits, you can make sure that your children do other things besides being glued to digital media. Remember to agree on the rules, and make them visible.

App Control

Children are app-savvy. They install and use various apps for communication, recreation, and study – often more capably than adults do. SAFE checks apps for any malicious code, and it also checks if the applications contain any other undesirable features, like extensive advertising. On Android, the Safe Applications feature allows you to check the permissions requested by installed apps. This helps in protecting your child’s private data from being leaked by apps. Our Android application also provides application control, where any newly installed apps must be authorized by you.

Location Monitoring

To save you from worrying about your kids’ physical safety, F-Secure SAFE supports location services on Android devices. You can simply log in to My F‑Secure portal and get the location of your child on a map. Just select a device, and make your digital parenting easier.

Give it all a try and see the difference. You can try F-Secure SAFE for free.