With the technology and the internet now being in everyone’s reach, it is more difficult than ever to safeguard your kids from threats, both online and offline. But, as a parent, it’s still your responsibility to take every possible measure or precaution to ensure your children remain safe wherever they are.
There are a number of things you can do to protect your children against threats like cyberbullying, sexual assault, kidnapping, etc. To start with, you need to train them to identify and protect themselves against such common threats. Also, using a Family Security app to monitor your children and other family members is also a good approach. In this article, we will discuss some of these tips in detail.
Table of Contents
1. Use a Monitoring App
Over the past couple of years, the use of parental control apps for monitoring children’s internet and social activities has become very common. It’s a good thing, since these apps allow parents to have better control over their kids’ security by enabling them to keep track of their location, social activities, chats, etc.
For instance, the Titan Family Security app is an advanced parental control app, which parents can use to know where their kids are (live location), what they’re doing on their phones, which apps they’re using, whom they’re talking to, and what they are talking about. The more you know about your kids, the better you can protect them from both known and unknown threats.
2. Be Aware
In order to be able to protect your kids from common threats, you must be aware of their whereabouts and surroundings at all times. For instance, if your kids are going to a neighbour’s house, you must first investigate what kind of people your neighbours are and if they are trustworthy. Allow them to go only if you feel your child will be safe there. Also, try not to leave your kids alone at unfamiliar or public places like stations, malls, marketplaces, parks, etc.
3. Teach them Safety
One of the best things you can do to ensure the complete safety of your kids is to teach them about safety precautions, like using pepper spray when they feel threatened or shouting or calling for help. Also, make sure your children know their full identities, including name, father’s name, address, phone numbers, etc. so they can easily reach you if they get lost.
4. Talk to them
Having an open conversation with your kids is one of the best ways to reach them and teaching them the importance of being safe online/offline. Make sure you kids understand what you expect from them and how they should behave at specific times. If you’re prohibiting them from using something, explain the reason why.
5. Limit Screen Time
Setting limits for screen time, i.e. the number of hours for which they can use their phone/tablet/computer and watch television, has also proven to be a very good measure for controlling their security. This also helps create a sense of self-discipline among children. Also, try to have a fixed schedule for study time, play time, etc.
Once you start becoming more aware and caring as a parent, your children will automatically start following the suite and become more self-conscious about protecting themselves.
