Tech Tips for Parents this Digital Parenting Week
In today’s digital world, the internet is an essential resource for young people to access information, explore community, and find themselves. But we know that this often comes alongside fears of experiencing online harms like doxxing, grooming, or bullying. Trying to protect your family from everything all the time is impractical and exhausting, but some thoughtful planning can help families…
This Digital Parenting Week, experts offer advice for parents to help their children navigate the digital world safely. Communication and planning are key to creating a digital safety plan that addresses each family's unique concerns.
Parents should open up conversations with their children about the apps, games, and social media platforms they use. Together, they can determine what needs to be protected, such as privacy and mental health during online activities. It's essential to understand the potential consequences of failing to protect online safety, such as losing money or engaging in harmful conversations.
Assessing the likelihood of encountering risks and the effort required to mitigate them helps parents determine the best approach. Building strong relationships with children's friends and their parents can provide additional support in maintaining online safety.
Privacy should be a family priority, with everyone working together to develop digital security practices. Secure messaging platforms like Signal provide strong end-to-end encryption and limited data collection to protect privacy from government and corporate surveillance. However, if a family prefers using familiar apps like WhatsApp, Apple's iMessage, or Google Messages, it's important to understand the privacy limits of these platforms.
Regularly reviewing privacy settings and discussing the sharing of personal information, such as photos, messages, and location details, is crucial. Developing incident response plans and practicing good security habits, like using strong and unique passwords and a password manager with two-factor authentication, further enhances online safety.
Lastly, parents should approach parental controls as a collaborative effort with their children. By exploring new apps together and adjusting family rules as they grow, parents can foster a sense of autonomy in their children while maintaining effective online safety measures.
Written by urgent.news from EFF Deeplinks's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
