Technology & Tools

Summer Safety for Kids Includes Technology Safety

Published on: June 15th, 2015

These days, summer safety for kids goes well beyond concerns over swimming, biking, and softball. Unfortunately, technology harbors many dangers especially for young children with extra time on their hands over the summer vacation. Computer Troubleshooters is here to share a few summer safety tips to keep your children safe while they experiment with technology this summer.

Using Tech for Summer Safety

Use these tips to keep your kids safe while using technology over summer break.

• Stay a step ahead of your children: Even if you aren’t much of a Facebook fan, become familiar with it so that you understand what your kids are up to online. The same goes for any of the social media platforms that your children might be using. Follow their activities and monitor who their connections are. Unfortunately, there are a lot of child predators lurking online. Stay a step ahead of your children when it comes to their use of technology and keeps tabs on their online activities.

• Age appropriate viewing: If you don’t want your children watching certain types of programming, you can take control even if you aren’t home. Use digital tools to filter and block movies and other programming that contains adult rated content, violence or material that you feel is inappropriate for their age.

• Dangerous surfing: We aren’t talking about the beach, we mean online surfing that can plunge your child into inappropriate content. Similar to digitally blocking adult movies, you can use digital tools to restrict access to sites that feature inappropriate content for children. And don’t forget that most kids can figure out how to adjust the filtering tools! Again, stay a step ahead of your kids and check back to see if the settings have been changed.

• Don’t lose sleep over it: No parent wants to discover that their child is losing sleep because they are using their phone at 2:00 am. Also, texting under the covers is really hard on the eyes. Take the phone away at bedtime or install sleep functions on the phone so that calls received after a certain hour go directly to voicemail.

• Emergencies: There are cell phones designed specifically for young children that feature large buttons, parental-programmable stored numbers and long battery life. Some also include GPS tracking devices. Keep your family safe and in close contact with a phone for your child. Be sure your child knows how to contact you or the police in an emergency.

• Accidents: When kids are on vacation, accidents are a more frequent occurrence. Smartphone screens are shattered, laptops can become lost, and tablets get soaked by the pool. And, unfortunately, “big kids” are often texting while driving. Accidents come in all shapes and sizes. Be prepared!

Be Proactive and Establish Technology Limits with Your Kids

When it comes to kids and technology, children require clear boundaries and an understanding of the appropriate use of technology. Parents need to be not only vigilant about their kids’ online behaviors, but also consistent when it comes to enforcing the rules. Staying a step ahead of children’s use of technology can be difficult, but it is a critically important aspect of parental responsibility.

Do you want to learn more about keeping your kids and your devices safe? Do you need help with damaged equipment? Is it time to establish a reliable backup system if your laptop goes missing on vacation? Call Computer Troubleshooters today and one of their professionals can assist you with all of your technology needs.