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The best tips for a safe handling of your children with the Internet
The Internet is almost indispensable in our lives. Of course, our children also want to and should learn how to use the Internet. We have tips for parents.
It is frightening: Although 84 percent of parents say their children use the Internet, nearly half (49%) have no idea of their children's online activity at all.
The biggest concern of the adults is that children could reveal too much of themselves, deal with pictures without hesitation. In addition, they are afraid that criminals could make contact with their children through chats or forums.
This resulted in the current "Safety Report 2014" from the Institute for Demoscopy Allensbach.
Children and teenagers have no fear of contact with computers, smartphones and the Internet. All the more important is a proper education!
At the beginning just surf the Internet together
"Parents do not have to know everything, but they should make do with it", advises Kristin Langer, media coach at the initiative "Look what makes your child do it with the media" (www.schau-hin.info).
One area that fascinates children on the Internet is apps and games. Here you can look at different portals (eg klicksafe.de / touchportal.de / flimmo.de) reviews from independent experts.
Create awareness of dangers
A specific age, when a child is allowed to start surfing the Internet, can not be easy. That is individually very different. Much more important is that parents develop an awareness that there are dark sides in the internet.
Filter programs that only share individual websites or search engines allow children to surf in a protected area (eg fragfinn.de / jugendschutzprogramm.de).
Restrictive surfing does not have to be boring - there is a wide selection of web offers especially for younger people. They are called blinde-kuh.de, fragfinn.de or helles-koepfchen.de. The funding initiative "A Network for Children" is also a starting point for high-quality online offers.
Special care with chat rooms
Teenagers, but also children, like to chat in chats. Therefore, supervised chat rooms are recommended (www.kidschat.eu or seitenstark.de/chat). Here you can see if any suspicious content is posted. In addition, they are often free of advertising.
Professionals recommend a nickname that does not indicate the real name or age.
