This week is National Child Protection Week, an awareness initative from the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect(NAPCAN), which has been running annually for the last 20 years. Google is supporting National Child Protection Week by offering tips and reminders on some tools they provide to keep your kids safe while surfing on-line.
Of course nothing is better than being with your child while they’re on the net, but eventually the helicopter parenting has to let your child fly solo. Google launched the Google Safety Centre earlier this year, and shared tips like these to help you protect what your kids are seeing :
2. YouTube SafetyMode. If you’d prefer not to see mature or age-restricted content on YouTube, scroll down to the bottom of any YouTube page and click on the button that says “Safety”. You can also log in with a YouTube account and lock SafetyMode as your default setting on each one of your computer browsers.
3. Manage apps available to your family. You can decide which Google Play apps are appropriate for your family by looking at the ratings: everyone, low maturity, medium maturity or high maturity. You can control the types of apps that can be downloaded to your device. In the Play Store settings, select “User Controls”, then tap on “Content filtering”.
Google supports a wide variety of childrens charities aimed at creating a safe environment online.Organisations such as the Alannah and Madeline Foundation and the Carly Ryan Foundation who provide schools across Australia be ‘e-smart’ and prevent cyber-bullying. They also support research into how technology fits into the lives of young people by funding Young And Well.
They also recommend online resources such as Reachout.com for kids with difficult questions, the website was created by the Inspire foundation, as well as Kids Helpline and Childwise’ Starting point as places for kids to get immediate help.
The week will end with White Balloon Day on Friday, an iniative by Bravehearts, which will raise awareness and funds for Aussie kids affected by sexual assault. Social media users can support awareness by sharing #WhiteBalloonDay, as well as #WhoRUProtecting on their feeds.
All good causes, and some great ideas to help you monitor and control what your kids are accessing on-line. Let us know if you have any other tools you use to protect your kids on-line.
