Parental Control- The Importance of Protecting Kids Online

Have you ever wondered how much time your children spend in front of a device without your supervision? Yes, it is time to establish limits and, above all, to educate.

The new generations grow hand in hand with a device, as technology evolves, our children are marking their steps. Inevitably, today's minors can stay away from technology and, with it, from the threats posed by the digital world. So here we explain the importance of setting limits, educating them, and promoting the importance of online safety.

Understand the dangers online

It is about educating our young people about the risks they run in the digital world, do not be alarmist with them, you can talk about this in their day-to-day talks. Surfing the internet means a world of potential threats where your children can be easy targets for cybercriminals. We explain the main vulnerabilities that can be found:

1. Phishing: Having an email account or social networks brings them closer to falling into phishing scams , these messages try to manipulate users to obtain confidential information and download malware . Young people should be on the lookout for emails with messages too good to be true or requesting to enter their login details in an alarmist manner. Phishing emails can appear to be real, criminals use trustworthy company names to attack, but with email addresses that raise doubts. When faced with a suspicious email, it is important not to click on any links, provide information, or respond to the email. 

 2. Passwords: Tell your children the importance of having a reliable password that they do not share with anyone except their parents, as well as the importance of having a password for each account. If criminals manage to obtain your children's password, and use the same password for all their accounts, they will lose all their sessions in one act. We recommend making use of a password manager such as Avast Passwords to easily keep track of all your children's accounts.

3. Public Wi-Fi: No matter what your children's activities are during the day, at some point they will have access to a public Wi-Fi network, which represents a danger. The attackers take advantage of the existence of these public networks to create a fake Wi-Fi and thus be able to attack the devices. That is the importance of using a virtual private network (VPN) , you can learn more about what a VPN is and how it works.

Let's talk about Parental Control

Parental Control provides parents with monitoring and limitation tools for minors when using various platforms and applications. Parents can restrict searches, the type of content displayed as well as downloads and purchases for minors.

Most of the devices our minors access have parental controls, for example, if your child is in contact with an Android device, the official Google Play Store has the option to limit the content to download or buy. In the case of applications, each one must be configured with the platform's own parental controls.

Netflix, for example, allows account holders to create different profiles where the content will be classified according to the previously selected age, it even allows PIN blocking for accounts with access to any content, in this way parents can make sure that their children will always use the account created specifically for them, without access to the others.

The limits established by parents through parental control settings go beyond blocking certain content to minors. Microsoft has just announced (site in English) the launch of a new feature that allows minors to limit the use of applications and platforms such as Windows 10 and Xbox One. Parents will have control over the time their children spend inside applications and games specifically, rather than setting a time limit for device use. You can set a specific time and schedule per day for your children to have access to Netflix or other entertainment applications, this way you can limit the time they use on these platforms, without restricting the use of their device.

Protection for all

In addition to the restrictions and limits established through the parental controls offered by the different platforms, as well as educating and promoting online safety, we recommend using complete protection against  malware , webcam hacking,  ransomware , password theft   and more. . Avast Premium Security  offers total online protection for all your devices and platforms in one place, covering up to 10 devices, so you can protect your family's desktops, laptops, phones and tablets with an easy-to-manage Avast account. .